Scams and identity theft were big problems in Australia, long before the Optus data breach put many of us on alert.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), more than $381 million has been lost to scams so far this year.
And there have been more than 146,000 reports to the ACCC’s Scamwatch, but those are only the ones being reported, so the actual scam loss figure could be higher, ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard says.
“Scammers will almost always pretend to be a trusted entity, a government agency, a bank or major retailer, or they will be tapping in on current events,” Ms Rickard says.
“So, we’re seeing scams and scammers at the moment call and have an excuse that they’re calling because of the Optus breach.”
Here are some of the common scams going around right now to watch out for.
E-toll scams
What’s the scam? Scammers posing as a toll roads operator to trick people into handing over personal information.
How does this scam work? It starts with a message claiming to be from road toll operators like Linkt. Sometimes, people are asked to pay an unpaid toll, other times people are asked to update their account details for their e-tag. Sometimes the texts come from unknown mobile numbers, but Linkt says it’s been made aware of scammers using a spoofing technique that makes the message…
