Don't get scammed!
Phone scams are costing Aussies over $30 million a year. Here's what to look out for...
Phone scams are costing Aussies over $30 million a year.
What to look out for:
- You receive a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from a government department, debt collection agency or trusted company.
- Calls seeking financial details, such as your credit card or banking details, in order to process a refund or other ‘overpayment’.
- Calls seeking personal details such as full name, date of birth, passport details or bank information.
- Call quality may be poor, and the caller may be difficult to understand.
- Callers which attempt to apply a lot of pressure, urging you to take immediate action to address a problem.
- Caller delivers threats to life, arrest or demands you pay money that you supposedly owe and threatens if you do not cooperate
- You may be left a message on your answering machine asking you to ring a number. Be wary of phone numbers beginning with ‘190’. These are charged at premium rate and can be expensive.
- Callers advising that your computer has a virus or is attacking others.
Don’t be pressured by a threatening caller. Stop, think and check whether their story is true. If you receive a phone call from someone threatening you and asking you to pay a fee, hang up and do not respond.
What to do next:
- If you're not sure if the caller actually is who they say they are, hang up and call the organisation back by using their official published contact details.
- If you think something’s not quite right, just hang up. If it’s an SMS, delete it and don’t reply. If you do, the scammers will escalate their intimidation and attempts to get your money.
- Never send money or give credit card details, online account details or personal information to anyone you don’t know or trust and never by email or over the phone.
- If you are concerned for your safety, contact the police.
- If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately.
- Report it. This helps us to warn people about current scams, monitor trends and disrupt scams where possible.
Resources
To report a scam or check the latest scams go to https://www.scamwatch.gov.au
Free Serice. Register your phone number to stop unsolicited phone calls go to https://www.donotcall.gov.au
Scams Awareness week 17-21 August, 2020.