Aussies who have been affected by flooding and other disasters have been warned to be on the lookout for a new scam.
Criminals are pretending to be disaster-relief agencies to access victims’ information to take advantage of people affected by disasters.
“These scammers may be offering help, payments, or claim they’re collecting donations for disaster-affected communities,” Services Australia warned.
“When offering you ‘help’, the scammers will often ask for your personal information. This can include asking for your bank details, passwords or credit card details. They may ask you this directly, or get this information by asking you to register your details online.”
Services Australia said to take advantage of a victim, scammers may ask for personal information on social media, contact victims directly via direct message or live chats, and may ask for money for providing help.
Services Australia reminded Aussies it would never ask you to communicate via direct message or live chat.
“We’ll never ask you to share personal information with us on social media, and we never ask you to pay for our assistance,” Services Australia said.
Sadly, scammers taking advantage of Aussies affected by disaster is nothing new. Back in August last year, Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten said $22 million was blocked from going to fraudsters trying to rort the…
