An Australian man has launched a furious tirade against his bank after waking up to the terrifying discovery that all his accounts had been emptied to a zero balance without any prior warning.
The Sickening Discovery
Ross, an Australian customer of Heritage Bank, last month posted a viral video capturing the moment he logged in to check his finances. To his horror, every single account displayed a balance of zero. "All my money was gone. Every single account was at zero, and I just felt instantly sick," Ross recounted. "I was sick as a dog. Every cent I had was gone."
Panicked, he immediately dialled the bank's advertised number for urgent problems. After being kept on hold for ten minutes, the explanation he received only deepened his shock and confusion. "I told them what happened and gave them all the details... and she goes 'oh, your account has been frozen'," he said.
A Baffling Resolution
Ross pressed the representative, insisting, "I said my bank account is zero, not frozen, it's zero, there's no money in there." The staff member then informed him that answering a simple security question would resolve the issue. The question was: "Do you reside in Australia, or do you have any residencies overseas?"
After confirming his Australian residency, Ross said his account access and funds were restored immediately. However, the emotional distress had already taken its toll. "I was feeling sick as a dog thinking I'd lost all my money," he stated, concluding with a blunt message for the institution: "Heritage Bank, go f*** yourself."
The Missed Email and Bank Apology
In the aftermath, Ross realised Heritage Bank had sent him an email requesting an update to his residency status before freezing the accounts. He had ignored it, believing it to be a sophisticated phishing scam. "I'll be honest, I have looked back and I found one email, that honestly looked like a phishing email," he explained.
"The wording was so obscure, I thought this is a scam for sure. It had two PDFs attached, and this little black duck does not click on anything in emails," Ross said, citing his awareness of modern scams. He also pointed to the volume of correspondence from his bank that goes unread due to a busy work life.
Heritage Bank subsequently issued an apology for the incident. A spokesperson said, "We understand how concerning it would be to see unexpected changes to an account, and we apologise for the worry this caused." The bank declined to comment on individual cases but stated that accounts are sometimes temporarily restricted if certain customer information needs confirmation, and customers are contacted beforehand. They emphasised that "customer funds remain secure at all times."
