Afterpay and LatitudePay warn customers after spike in BNPL scams

Australia’s best known buy now, pay later (BNPL) operator, Afterpay, has warned of a spike in fraudulent phishing text and email scams targeting customers across the financial services sector.

In an email to customers on Monday, the financial technology company said it was “aware of recent increases in fraudulent phishing text and email activity” across the industry.

“These are being undertaken by scammers attempting to gain unauthorised access to customer accounts,” the company said.

Afterpay has urged customers to take care to protect their accounts, by not sharing passwords or verification codes with anyone and ensuring they always inspect links within text messages or emails before clicking, even if it appears to come from Afterpay.

They were also told to watch out for any grammatical errors and typos in the messages, as these could be an indication of phishing.

Phishing is when scammers attempt to trick you into giving out personal details such as your bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.

They may contact you by email, social media, phone call, or text message, pretending to be from a legitimate…