Aboriginal people transferring cash to Indians fraudulently

A Broome-based resident, Bob Kirkby, said he was approached by an aboriginal man at the Broome post office yesterday. The man asked for help to transfer USD 300 to Centrelink which he had been instructed to send to an address in India. The man had been promised thousands of dollars in return.

Kirkby said he spoke to the so-called Centrelink staffer over phone and then urged the aboriginal man not to send any money.

"The fact the money had to be transferred to India rang some alarm bells for me, especially with this fellow from One Arm Point, who didn't know what the hell was going on," he said.

"He was totally confused, he thought if he sent USD 300 he'd get USD 3,000 back", Kirkby said other people overheard the conversation and said they had been ripped off too.

"One young woman came up and said she'd just transferred USD 330, they're definitely being ripped off," he said.

Department of Consumer Protection's Annetta Bellingeri said there have been a number of similar cases reported across Western Australia in recent weeks. She said it is often the most vulnerable people who are targeted.

"It is a concern that anyone falls victim to a scam, and we do see that scammers are very ruthless in who they target, whether it be the elderly or people with English as a second language," she said.

"They really don't mind who they target as long as they get their money". Bellingeri said it is a big concern if people are sending money to scammers.

"In what we understand, in this case, the money was sent away to India," she said. Centrelink, the trading name of the Commonwealth Service Delivery Agency (CSDA), is a statutory authority responsible for delivering human services on behalf of agencies of the Commonwealth Government of Australia.