Everyone would like to believe they can spot a scam when they see one, but the unfortunate truth is that many Australians are being deceived.
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Tasmania Police Acting Inspector Tony Stewart said the number of frauds and scams in the state is concerning.
“Tasmania Police is concerned at the number of frauds and scams that are targeting vulnerable people within our community. Millions of dollars are lost to scams each year in Australia – with much of the money being sent overseas.
“Police aim to stop the money being given in the first place as there is little likelihood of recovering money from scammers,” he said.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ScamWatch website said people need to stay alert online.
“The online sphere – email, the internet, social media and mobile apps – has overtaken telephones as scammers’ preferred tool of the trade to contact potential victims.
“If you provide the scammer with your details online or over the phone, they will use them to carry out fraudulent activities, such as using your credit cards and stealing your money,” they said.
In 2017, Scamwatch have so far received more than 51,000 reports of scammers attempting to con people online.
“Online scam losses total nearly $37 million so far in 2017, with people aged 45 to 54 most likely to lose money,” Scamwatch said.
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Phishing scams are among the most popular. Most will attempt to trick someone into giving out personal information by pretending to be from a legitimate business.
A common scam making the rounds is the Netflix scam, which was detected by the Australian Communications and Media Authority back in 2016.
The scam involves an email being sent to Netflix customers which states that their accounts billing information is invalid and that their subscription is about to be terminated.
After ‘logging in’ to a convincing version of the sign-in page, the customer is taken to a page that requests personal information such as their full name, date of birth, address, and bank details.
Once these are entered and submitted, the website then takes them to page stating that the account has been reactivated, but in reality has passed on all of those personal details to scammers.
From there, fraudulent activities could take place, such as money or identity theft.
Unfortunately, there are many other scams like this being sent around.
Another, for example, is targeting users of popular music service Spotify Premium.
Similarly, this email asks the user to update their billing by taking them to a legitimate-looking sign-in page to ‘update’ their details.
Inspector Stewart said every member of the community needs to be aware.
“Every member of the community needs to pay attention to this issue, particularly those who work, care, assist or associate with the elderly or vulnerable,” he said.
“Older Australians are attractive targets for scammers due to them potentially having accumulated wealth, being less internet and computer savvy, and more likely to do what a ‘fake’ … organisation says to.
“We also ask that people who receive money deposits or transfers from this group of people ensure they are not under duress or being given directions by scammers.
“People are encouraged to report scams to www.scamwatch.gov.au or www.acorn.gov.au,” Inspector Stewart said.