Another e-mail scam driving warning not to click on suspicious links

A new scam has surfaced telling people they have won a major prize.

The only thing you have won, however, is the chance to give scammers your personal details or be sent to a malicious website that will infect your computer.

A Starts at 60 member said they had received an email telling them the have been selected as the winner of a Toyota Kluger and to send their details.

 “As neither I nor my partner can remember my partner buying a raffle ticket as we own a new car, I’m worried it’s coming from hackers, and was asking if Starts at 60 had heard this as being a new scam,” they said.

A new scam, no.

It is actually an old one that has resurfaced.

While the Toyota Kluger scam was reported in 2015, it was even further back in 2011 that Toyota first issued an official statement relating to scams like this one.

The statement reads as follows:

Toyota Australia has received hundreds of inquiries from concerned members of the public who have been sent text messages or emails that claim they have won money and a new Toyota car.

Toyota Australia Executive Director of Corporate Services Bernie O’Connor said, “Toyota Australia and its related companies have no connection with any lotteries that inform members of the public, whether by SMS or email, that they have won a prize, even if the ‘Toyota’ name appears in the message.”

He said recent examples included emails purporting to come from ‘Toyota Flood Relief Fund’, ‘Toyota International Lotto’, ‘Toyota Car Promotions’, ‘Toyota Car International Promotion Program’ and ‘Toyota Fortune Lotto Draw’.

“Any SMS or e-mail of this nature has not been sent by Toyota Australia or by an external party with our permission,” said Mr O’Connor.

“Members of the public should avoid responding to any such e-mail or providing any personal information or money, as any SMS or email using the ‘Toyota’ name and claiming to award a lottery prize is highly likely to be a scam,” he said.

For information about how to recognise and report scams, please visit the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s SCAMwatch website at www.scamwatch.gov.au.

For information about SPAM and what you can do about it, please visit the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the body responsible for administering the SPAM legislation) at www.acma.gov.au.

If you have received an email like this, delete it.

Have you ever been the victim of a scam?