Australian Story on ABC and ABC iview profiles Ian Williams – When Victorian pensioner Ian Williams lost $1338 in a banking scam, he expected a quick refund and apology. But his bank, a subsidiary of the National Australia Bank, blamed him for the transactions, despite Ian’s dogged detective work producing clear evidence to the contrary.
The bank’s attitude so incensed the self-confessed “stubborn bugger” that he sued for it for $379,005,000. Williams estimated he was scammed 5.5% of his annual income and that figure represents 5.5% of NAB’s annual earnings.
“It was a number that in my mind would get the bank’s attention,”
– Williams says.
Ian has a varied skill set. He’s been a bricklayer, a private investigator, a nurse, a horse breaker and a bouncer. But representing himself in the Supreme Court was a challenge.
“I’ve downloaded the actual laws and the codes of conduct”,
– he says.
“And you think, ‘Christ, what are they trying to get at?’”
Along the way, Ian joined the Scam Victim Alliance, an organisation which provides support to people who’ve been scammed and lobbies for legislation to protect them.
“Ian’s case was very similar to some of the other payments cases that we’d been dealing with,”
– says co-founder Alex Brooks.
“They dispute the transaction but somehow the banks are able to still say it’s all your fault. “
Australian Story followed Ian Williams through the ups and downs of his court case and its aftermath, as he sought to hold the bank publicly accountable and draw attention to the massive problem of online scamming.
While the court case didn’t go the way he hoped, he did achieve an unexpected victory.
“I completely understand why he decided to go down the path he decided to go down”,
– says Chris Sheehan, head of fraud at NAB.
“We could have done things a lot better.”
Australian Story on ABC and ABC iview – Monday 23 February, 2026 at 8.00pm
Media Release – ABC
TV Central ABC content HERE
Australian Story on ABC and ABC iview profiles Ian Williams
