Adelaide baseball club on brink of collapse after scammers steal $22,000

A baseball club in Adelaide's Eastern Suburbs is on the brink of collapse after it was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars.

In a last-minute attempt to save the Kensington club, volunteers are pleading with the public to help raise funds to get them back on track. 

The Kensington Cardinals Baseball Club has just a year to go before its 100th anniversary, but the club's dreams of a grand celebration have been shattered by the theft.

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According to club president Darko Filko, an elderly volunteer received a phone call from a scammer posing as a bank representative, claiming that someone was attempting to hack their accounts. 

The volunteer allowed remote access to his computer, unknowingly granting the scammer control. 

"They asked him to access his computer and whilst he was doing that they were online with him going through it all, and then they basically took over, and locked him out of his account," Filko said.

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The scammers then siphoned $22,000 from the club's bank account and even drained the volunteer's personal savings.

Established in 1926, the Cardinals Baseball Club holds a rich history, having nurtured some of South Australia's finest baseball players and serving as a stepping stone to the top leagues. 

The race is now on to save the club from closure. Volunteers have started a fundraiser hoping the community can rally around the sporting group.

"We will be hosting a fundraising event at the club as well so we are looking for any sort of donations that we could raffle off," Filko said.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.