Blues vice-captain Jacob Weitering has spoken out on losing his life savings after falling victim to an elaborate banking scam in an interview with the Herald Sun.
The 25-year old sent funds up to his daily transaction limit to what he was told was a “safeguarding account” – but was actually a direct deposit to the fraudsters – until his accounts were emptied.
It was money Weitering never saw again as he was left devastated.
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“It was a very significant amount of money that I’ve struggled to deal with over the last six months,” he told the Herald Sun.
“It was that the money that I’d worked hard for, and saved, was all taken away. All gone.”
The former No. 1 draft pick first received text messages last September from representatives claiming to be from his bank, the National Australia Bank, telling him a suspicious transaction had been made from his accounts.
The scheme was reportedly so detailed the criminals were able to SMS Weitering through the same thread as his messages with the bank.
After initially ignoring those messages, Weitering received a call from a phone number that appeared as the fraud line from NAB, informing him his accounts had been frozen but that the money needed to be moved to a “safeguarding account.”
“I sent them the money directly,” Weitering said. “That was the biggest mistake that I made, and that was built off the perfect role-playing at their end.
“We cleared all the accounts until they were empty, into what I thought was a safe account.”
Weitering said the financial blow disrupted he and his partner’s plans to start a family.
“Everyone’s got to pay their bills – I’ve got a mortgage and would also like to start a family. It severely impacts those plans,” he said.
“I was able to process it quicker than family members and my partner, but it hasn’t been an easy process.”
Weitering was understandably left embarrassed by the saga and didn’t tell his teammates what’d happened, but bravely agreed to sit down with NAB CEO Ross McEwan for a video aimed to educate others on how to protect themselves from such scams.
According to SEN, NAB on Monday released the Weitering-McEwan video to its 30,000 staff.
