Five things to never do…. (if you don’t want to be scammed)

In my career in the finance industry, I have seen an increasing trend in people in my age group (55–65) becoming scammed and losing $1000’s and in some cases, tens of $1000’s to scammers.

I feel so strongly about this, that I have put together a list of the most common scams , and how to protect yourself from these crooks…

1. Scamwatch.com.au says that a very common way that scammers will try to do you out of your savings is to call you directly, pretending to be from a telecommunications company, such as Telstra here in Australia, the National Broadband Network, or even Microsoft. They will offer to help you with setting up your new modem or try to convince you that your computer is infected with multiple viruses. In all cases, the dodgy caller will ask you to give them remote access to your computer, so they can “fix” the problem. Solution: Never give anyone access to your system, no matter how convincing they sound.
2. Another scam is when you are contacted, usually by email, by someone from your bank, internet service provider or phone company, asking you to click on a link, to “verify” your details, or to let you know that there has been “suspicious” activity on your account (the only “suspicious” activity in this case is the criminal’s fingers tapping on their keypad… usually many thousands of kilometres away…). If you click on the link in these emails, it will usually lead you to a very convincing site, in which you may be asked to enter your credit card details. These types of emails will stand out in that they usually contain grammatical errors and may not address you by name. A scary example of this was when a friend unknowingly compromised their Paypal ID and password by clicking on a “Paypal” email, to verify their details, as there had been “suspicious” activity. Always delete these types of emails.
3. A very common scam that I have seen in my email inbox is one that is allegedly from a large retail store, such as Woolworths, Coles or here in Australia, Bunnings and Aldi. It looks very legitimate and offers to reward me with a gift card or voucher for being a “valued customer”. Always delete these emails.
4. Australian Taxation Office Scams — these, according to scamwatch.com.au, try to convince you that you are due to receive a large tax refund (always an odd amount, to look legitimate), and to click on the following link to claim it. Again, delete these.
5. Scams involving Covid-19 are now very common, with scamwatch.com.au stating that these usually involve investment opportunities in Pfizer and fake surveys offering early access to this vaccine and prizes.

Finally…

A good method that I use to check if an online off is legitimate, is to check with the provider directly if my account with them is ok — if it is Paypal, check with them: is my account blocked? Do I have a taxation refund waiting (have I lodged my tax return)?

In Australia, scamwatch.com.au gives very good tips on how to protect yourself, such as hanging up on callers, and never giving out personal details and bank details to callers, and, if purchasing online, to check reviews on a website you are purchasing from before proceeding — a lot of 1 star out of 5 ratings including comments such as “these guys are crooks” should be a BIG stop sign…

If you have been scammed, always contact your bank first. A good idea is to then take the device you have been scammed on to a reputable computer store, to have it “cleaned” of any viruses that scammers may have installed to track your online activity.

Written by Mark Kleimann

Looking to help others