A high-profile Sydney TV journalist has revealed the way scammers stole more than $30,000 from her in an elaborate scam which originated from a legitimate Westpac telephone number

While she was in the ER with her son, a prominent journalist was conned out of $35,000 by callers pretending to be her bank.

Last Friday, scammers used a Westpac bank official phone number to send a message to 33-year-old Nine Network presenter Jess Ridley in Sydney.

The TV reporter received an SMS alerting her to a suspicious activity in her account after her child fractured her arm.

Then, the con artist pretended to be a member of the Westpac Fraud Team over the phone.

He provided a reference number and other simple verification techniques to give the con some legitimacy.

Ms. Ridley was led through a hoax sequence of official-sounding actions over the weekend to keep her account “secure” before realizing on Monday that she had fallen for a complex con and lost $35,000.

When Ms. Ridley claimed she couldn’t locate the money she had allegedly transferred to her own account, she allegedly called the scammer’s number and spoke with a real Westpac representative.

She told Radio 2GB’s Ben Fordham, “On Monday morning, I called Westpac on the same number (that the scammers had used) and quoted my case number.”

I initially only received silence from the other end of the line until hearing this person say, “We don’t know anything about this.” That is when it suddenly dawned on me.

Ms. Ridley claimed she believed she had checks and balances because she was a journalist, but she was nonetheless trained to think she was speaking to the fraud department.

Anyone might experience it, she claimed.

Because it sounds like this is happening frequently, I thought it was worthwhile to speak out against it.

The con artists looked to be employing caller ID spoofing or over-stamping technologies, in which a fraud ring utilizes a legitimate company phone number to defraud customers.

Ms. Ridley failed to consider challenging the scammer’s initial text message.

Ms. Ridley didn’t think she was the victim of a sneaky scam because she had previously gotten authorized texts from the same Westpac number that were authentic.

“You google that number, and I did it,” Fordham said. “It comes up as Westpac; you’d assume you’re talking to Westpac.”

Initially, Ms. Ridley claimed, she had felt relieved because she had assumed the original fraudulent transaction was being handled correctly.

You’re thinking, “Great, Westpac is on this right now,” she said.

In an effort to respond to the message, Ms. Ridley tried to call Westpac, but she hung up while still on the line.

She claims that con artists profited from the fact that she was distracted by her kid being hospitalized and the fraud in her account.

“I suppose my mistake was bringing a two-year-old with a broken arm to an emergency room,” I said.

“I’m a small business owner, and this guy has continued to contact me on the same number when I’m waiting in triage with my son,” the person said.

“I suppose my mistake was bringing a two-year-old with a broken arm to an emergency room,” I said.

“I’m a small business owner, and this guy has continued to contact me on the same number when I’m waiting in triage with my son,” the person said.

The journalist believes she was duped by a former bank staffer.

Now that I think about it, I think this person would have needed a job at one of those Westpac call centers.

She claimed that the bank shared her surprise at the level of precision used in the scam.

“They told me they can’t believe the level of sophistication,” they claimed.

“Now that it’s happened, the bank is looking into the scam itself.”

In the end, Westpac paid Ms. Ridley’s losses.

Westpac advised Australians to be on the lookout for scams in a statement.