Australian finance commentator Scott Pape, known as the Barefoot Investor, criticised ING after a customer lost wedding savings to a scammer posing as a Telstra employee. He argued that the bank should have detected the unusual pattern of rapid transfers and temporarily frozen the account, raising wider questions about banks’ safeguards and compensation for scam victims.

The customer, Fiona, was persuaded to disclose information while believing her internet connection had been compromised; scammers then removed her $20,000 savings through repeated payments, including to an account named “Drothy”. Pape said ING later reimbursed half the loss, a decision he described as inconsistent, and noted that the bank had reported $549 million in after-tax profit in the previous year.