About Mum - A Cyber Crime Victim Impact Statement

In April 2023, I published an article in the Canberra Times which explored the case study of a recent victim of the 'Hi Mum' cyber scam. It was Alex's mum's story. Since the article, I have stayed in touch with Alex and his mum as their journey continues.

As a trained 'design thinker', I have come to value the insights to be gained from customer journey analysis. Sadly Alex's mum's story is a cyber scam victim's journey, but it is also the journey of a telco and banking customer.

We share Alex's mum's victim impact statement by video. It is 7 minutes long and rich in context to help stakeholders get a sense of what is at play when a loved one is robbed, emotionally violated, and let down by a system of stakeholders. Alex and I offer you this confronting story in the hope of effecting positive change. We are asking for stakeholders to come together and agree a consistent framework of accountability and responsibility towards the victims of cyber crime.

The same weekend that the Canberra Times published the story of Alex's mum, the commentator, Jon Faine, published an article in the SMH. Jon very eloquently describe part of the challenge:

"John notified his bank, which said it could do nothing. He asked banking watchdog Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to intervene. APRA referred him to the telecommunications watchdog, the Australia Communications and Media Authority, as a telco ought to be responsible for the carriage of a fraudulent text message. The AMCA referred his complaint back to APRA, which next sent his email to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which in turn recommended he take it up with his bank."

It's time for this pass the parcel to end. This 'parcel' could be your mum, or mine... or any other person we love.

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Note: The bank referred to in this video was offered the opportunity to comment. We have included their response as follows:

“Bendigo and Adelaide Bank takes cyber security very seriously. We use a combination of standard industry practices to safeguard our systems and protect customer data.

“Bendigo and Adelaide Bank provides customers with regular alerts and maintains a webpage with general tips for customers on how to keep their details safe at: www.bendigobank.com.au/security

“We would like to take the opportunity to remind customers of the important role they play in keeping their information secure, as we continue to look for new ways to detect and neutralise threats to their online security”.

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