Family man loses his life savings after sophisticated email scam

A 60-year-old Australian man who was looking forward to a comfortable retirement is now struggling to make ends meet after he fell victim to a cruel scam, according to the New York Post.

Renato Calalang had worked hard his entire career, working in different types of jobs and saving all he could to make for a relaxing retirement. He reportedly had about $150,000 sitting in the bank that would secure his family until he reached pension age.

However, that all went away after he opened an email from a scammer who claimed to be from a bank in his native Philippines. The email suggested that one of Calalang's relatives had passed away and he was entitled to their inheritance. All Calalang would have to do is provide his personal information and he would be all set.

Though he was unaware of an inheritance, he did not believe it was out of the realm of possibility, per the report.

“I got an email from someone called Steve Golds who said they were the owner of a bank in Manila,” he said.

“He said I was entitled to an inheritance of 3.8 million euro and I just needed to provide my details, which I did in my reply."

The email was sent by someone posing as a credit manager named Steven Golds. Calalang said the whole situation seemed plausible, as it even included a death certificate of a person with the same name as his cousin.

The scammer said Calalang would not be able to transfer directly to the bank in Manila, but would instead have to transfer funds to the scammer's agent in Australia, according to the Daily Mail.

"So I deposited some funds into a Commonwealth Bank account, which is the same bank that I am with," Calalang said.

"This made me feel like nothing bad could happen, and if something were to go wrong, I thought I would be able to chase up Commonwealth Bank for help."

Calalang even spoke to one of the scammers on the phone, who sounded legitimate. They were in contact over the next three months, and Calalang believed it was only a matter of time before he received his inheritance.

The man soon realized that the whole thing was a scam and contacted the police in September 2023. He also got in touch with Scamwatch and Commonwealth Bank, which was the bank used by the scammers.

After two months of investigating the situation, the bank said it could not recover Calalang's funds because the bank in the Philippines would not cooperate, per the report.

"I wish they had alerted me that this was a scam. If they see someone's account diminishing, something is obviously wrong," Calalang said.

"But instead they just said it was my fault. Yet the scammers have bank accounts with Commonwealth."

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