A man has opened up about losing thousands in a text message scam.

Aucklander Peter Willyams was in Australia when he clicked on a link in a text pretending to be from his bank.

He filled out details on the convincing website, and within minutes more than $35,000 disappeared from his account.

Willyams says given he was overseas, it seemed plausible his account had been frozen.

"And that's why I just had my guard down and the consequences were quite dramatic and very, very quick."

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