Retiree loses $140,000 in a superannuation scam as the system is left out of national protections

A new Super Consumers Australia investigation

When Betty*, a retired teacher in regional Victoria, started worrying about whether her super would last through retirement, she turned to what looked like a good investment opportunity online.

Instead, she was groomed by a scammer over weeks – withdrawing $5,000 from her retirement savings every day, for a month and transferring it into crypto. Betty hadn’t heard of crypto and had never traded in cryptocurrency before and in the end, she lost $140,000.

No one from her super fund spoke to her or asked questions about the repeated withdrawals and unusual transaction patterns.

Super Consumers Australia Director of Advocacy, Lily Jiang said Betty’s experience highlights a major gap in Australia’s scam prevention system.

“Super is the honey pot, but it’s currently the weakest link in the financial services system when it comes to scams protection.”

People over 65 years old reported the highest level of scam losses of any age demographic to  the National Anti-Scam Centre in 2025, losing $89 million.

“Australians are entering retirement with higher balances than ever before, where funds are much easier to access,” said Ms Jiang.

“Repeated withdrawals of thousands of dollars a day should raise red flags. Super funds need to be actively identifying and responding to suspicious transactions, not just processing withdrawals.”

While the Government has released a new Scam Prevention Framework (SPF), super has not been included and there is no national data collection and reporting on scams in super. 

“Right now, we’re relying too heavily on banks to catch scams at the final step. By then, the money has already left the super system,” Ms Jiang said.

We need a multi-layered approach where every part of the system takes responsibility for stopping scams. Super funds have visibility over how customers use their retirement savings, not the banks.

Super Consumers Australia is calling on the Government to urgently:

• Include superannuation in the Scam Prevention Framework rollout
• Collect and report national data on scams in super
• Deliver on promised mandatory customer service standards to ensure super funds can effectively prevent, detect and respond to scams.

Addressing these critical gaps will help stop more people losing the money they have worked hard their whole lives to build.

* not her real name

Read the investigation here.