A 26-year-old Australian charity worker says she has been completely locked out of her bank account by Up Bank, a digital brand of Bendigo Bank, after a customer disputed a $90 online sale of a rare book. Zoe Graham says the freeze came without warning, has left her unable to access any of her wages, and could last up to four weeks while the bank investigates, raising questions about how quickly banks can restrict access to customers' own funds during fraud reviews.

Up Bank told Ms Graham it had an obligation to act after receiving alerts from other institutions and that it could not offer financial help while the account was under review, instead directing her to Centrelink crisis payments and the AskIzzy welfare service, despite her working full-time and not qualifying for such support. She says she has supplied tracking details and the buyer's information to try to resolve the dispute but has been told she cannot contact the customer directly and has been advised against opening an account elsewhere in the meantime. Several other Up Bank customers have reportedly left similar complaints about sudden account freezes in online reviews.