Aussie wakes up to find his bank accounts completely drained after he failed to answer simple question: ‘Every cent I had was gone’
An Australian man has unleashed on his bank after waking up to find his accounts drained to zero without warning.
Ross last month posted a video that quickly went viral, capturing the moment he logged into his Heritage Bank accounts and discovered they all showed a zero balance.
‘All my money was gone. Every single account was at zero, and I just felt instantly sick. I was sick as a dog. Every cent I had was gone.’
Ross said he immediately rang the Heritage Bank number advertised for urgent problems.
But after sitting on hold for 10 minutes, he said the explanation he received only deepened the shock.
‘I told them what happened and gave them all the details, all the stuff you have to tell them to make sure you are who you are and she goes “oh, your account has been frozen”,’ he said.
Confused, Ross pressed for answers.
‘I said my bank account is zero, not frozen, it’s zero, there’s no money in there’.
An Australian man has revealed the terrifying moment he logged into his bank account and discovered every dollar he owned had vanished
The shock left him feeling ‘sick as a dog’ as he frantically tried to work out what had happened
‘She goes, “All you have to do is answer this question and I can unfreeze it”. So she asked me the question, “Do you reside in Australia, or do you have any residencies overseas?”‘
After confirming his details, he said the account was restored immediately.
But Ross said the emotional damage had already been done.
‘I was feeling sick as a dog thinking I’d lost all my money. Heritage Bank, go f*** yourself.’
Ross said he later realised Heritage Bank had sent him an email requesting an update to his residency status prior to his account being frozen, but he ignored it because it appeared to be a scam.
‘I’ll be honest, I have looked back and I found one email, that honestly looked like a phishing email,’ Ross said.
‘The wording was so obscure, I thought this is a scam for sure. It had two PDFs attached, and this little black duck does not click on anything in emails.
‘I’ve seen enough scams in my time to not haphazardly click on these things.
‘Let’s not mention the hundreds of other emails I get from my bank that I have no time to read because I’m busy working a full-time job and running a side business.’
Heritage Bank apologised for the blunder.
‘We understand how concerning it would be to see unexpected changes to an account, and we apologise for the worry this caused.
‘We can’t comment on individual customer circumstances. In general, there are times when we are required to temporarily restrict access to accounts if certain customer information needs to be confirmed, and customers are contacted to request that information before action is taken.
‘Customer funds remain secure at all times, and access is restored as soon as the required details are updated.’
