Aussies are being urged to be on guard this festive season as clever criminals do the rounds with a range of devious scams.
From Centrelink to Medicare, scammers are excellent at impersonating trusted government departments and tricking people into handing over their valuable details. Last month alone, more than 24,000 reports were made to Scamwatch with plenty more predicted throughout the holiday period.
While many are aware of the scams and quickly delete the suspicious emails or hang up on phone calls, some are unaware of the dangers and sadly fall victim.
Thankfully, there is support available over the festive period with the Department of Human Services on standby at the Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk to assist in the most unsavoury of situations.
Its main aim is to provide dedicated support to customers who think they may have been scammed, including those who have had their personal details stolen. Working alongside Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service IDCARE, staff can help victims to recover from the practical and emotional impacts of identity theft or cybercrime.
They can also offer advice on how to protect their personal information and check to see if unauthorised activity has occurred or been attempted.
Helpdesk has already received multiple calls from concerned Aussies who are worried their money and identification could be in the hands of criminals.
“In recent weeks we’ve received calls about a Medicare email and SMS scam, telling people they are owed a rebate of $200,” Helpdesk Support Officer Emma Cuthbert said in a statement. “Other scams have included phone calls from someone pretending to be from Centrelink, offering customers $5,000 in return for bank account details.
“We’ve also heard about a Centrelink phone scam, where scammers are saying if people make a payment via an iTunes card they’ll receive a rebate.”
The emails and phone calls can be quite convincing and Aussies may believe they are genuine. Thankfully, there are measures that can be taken if further along in the process people realise they are dealing with a scammer.
Firstly, people should hang up immediately from phone calls and avoid replying to text messages or emails and opening any links or attachments. If a malicious pop-up appears on a website, close the window, the whole web browser or even switch off the computer.
For those that have already been hooked up with a remote access connection on the computer, it’s important to disconnect the computer from the internet and contact your financial institution immediately if you think your bank account or credit details are at risk.
Next, it’s best to take the computer to a qualified computer technician who can scan for and remove any viruses that may have been installed. Until this has all been fixed, no online banking should be undertaken as the computer could still be monitored by spyware (software that aims to gather information).
“If you’ve received a suspicious email, text message or telephone call from someone claiming to be from Centrelink, Medicare or myGov this Christmas, don’t provide any personal information, and report this to scamwatch.gov.au,” Helpdesk Assistant Director Mark Cosgrove added. “We do send our customers emails and text messages, but we never include hyperlinks. We also never ask for remote access to your computer, or ask you to pay a fee in order to receive a payment. Customers should always access their online accounts from our genuine websites.”
People who are worried they may have experience a scam or identity incident related to Centrelink, Medicare, child support or myGov can call the department’s Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk on 1800 941 126.
If you encounter a scam, even if you weren’t affected, it should be reported to Scamwatch so others in the community can be warned.