Help & support
The Hope Business scam was an investment scam. An investment scam is when someone promises you that you can earn more money if you put your money towards something. The Hope Business scam promised people that they could earn money if they transferred their money into an app and completed certain tasks. The app was called different names, such as “Hope”, “Wonderful World” and “Star Like”.
The Hope Business scam promised people they could earn money if they completed tasks for e-commerce websites such as liking or following a business page to help share it with more people. People needed to transfer money into the app first to be able to earn money for completing tasks.
Scammers would transfer money into people’s app to make it look like they were earning money when they completed tasks. Some people received money they had made by using the app. However, that money was taken from other people who were victim to the scam. When some people received money from the app, it made them believe that it was real, and so they told other people about the app.
People formed groups that helped them earn more money in the app. The scammers blocked people from withdrawing money they had transferred into the app and earnt by completing tasks.
We’ve been working together with other banks to recover money for customers affected by the scam. We tried to get your money back, even if you did not report the scam with us.
Scammers often withdraw your money as soon as you’ve transferred it to them, which makes tracking where the money has gone very difficult.
Some customers will receive some money back if the scammer has left money in the account they transferred to. Other customers won’t receive their money back if the scammer has withdrawn all the money from the account they transferred to.
We’ve been working together with other banks to recover money for customers affected by the scam. We tried to get your money back, even if you did not report the scam with us.
Scammers often withdraw your money as soon as you’ve transferred it to them, which makes tracking where the money has gone very difficult.
Some customers will receive some money back if the scammer has left money in the account they transferred to. Other customers won’t receive their money back if the scammer has withdrawn all the money from the account they transferred to.
The Hope Business scam affected thousands of Australians in 2021. We’ve reviewed each case carefully and have been working with other banks to recover as much money as possible. We will be contacting all customers affected by the scam over a number of weeks.
Please check your NetBank inbox to see if you have any emails from us. You should also check your spam or junk folder.
We’re sorry that the investigation has taken a long time.
We’ve been reviewing each case carefully and want to get it right for our customers. Unfortunately, the process of recovering money between different banks can take time.
We hope to work together with customers to resolve this and return any money recovered as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the process of recovering money between different banks can take time. We’ve been reviewing each case carefully and want to get it right for our customers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Once we were aware of the scam, we could identify which customers were affected and secure their bank accounts. We reported the scam to other financial organisations as soon as possible.
The scam was reported to Apple and Google to have the apps removed. We identified which accounts customers were transferring their money to and stopped transactions between these accounts.
To warn other customers, we shared information about how to recognise and avoid scams on social media.
Keeping your accounts safe is our priority. We have a range of security features and services including real-time monitoring, fraud prevention technology and secure banking. Our security alerts within the CommBank app will let you know if we think something suspicious is happening in your account.
Find out more about keeping your account safe and how to protect yourself.
