When you think of a scam victim, Monique Svenson is not the typical person who comes to mind.
The 37-year-old small business owner and mother of two is the daughter of a bookkeeper and scientist.
“I’ve been around people who run their own businesses and I know to check balances,” she told ABC News.
“I work full time for myself, I have staff, I have multiple bank accounts, I have a branch manager, I have accountants, I invest in shares. The banking world feels very familiar to me.”
And yet, despite feeling confident in the world of cyber security, Ms Svenson very nearly lost thousands of dollars when scammers targeted her while on a family holiday.
The scenario they posed ‘seemed possible’
It started with a text message from her bank, or what she thought was her bank, saying there had been fraudulent activity on her account and asking her to call the number back immediately .
“I just had fraudulent charges on my account a few months ago, and I was caught up in the Optus data leak, so it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility,” Ms Svenson said.
The text appeared in the same thread as other correspondence from the bank, which lulled Ms Svenson into a false sense of security.
This is a scamming tactic called ‘spoofing’ where scammers overstamp the legitimate number that they are calling or texting on, appearing as if you are receiving communication from the legitimate number.
“He (the scammer) followed the normal thread of name, email address et cetera, so it feels very familiar….
