With high-profile data breaches in the news and the RBA describing cyber-attacks as a significant threat to Australia’s economic stability, it’s easy to feel concerned about the safety of your personal information. Criminals with access to your details could steal your identity, fraudulently run up debts in your name, and ruin your credit score, making accessing money and credit in the future much harder.
Here are five steps you could consider taking to help protect yourself from fraud:
1. Be alert
Don’t assume that you’re not wealthy or influential enough to be targeted by scammers or fraudsters. Scams target Australians of all backgrounds, ages and income levels, though there are some Australians that are more vulnerable than others.
Fraudulent messages could arrive via phone, text, email, social media, or other sources. They can be sophisticated enough to appear realistic, and will sometimes come from familiar phone numbers or email addresses.
But no matter how realistic a message appears, or how convincing a caller may sound on the phone, avoid clicking any links or answering any questions until you’ve had a chance to go and verify for yourself. For example, if you receive an email from your bank asking you to click a link, consider first calling the bank’s main phone number (not a number included in the email) and asking if the message is safe to open.
You could also consider regularly checking your credit score, as this will be affected by any credit…
