Check it before
you click it

Investment scams

Investment scammers pose as stockbrokers, bankers, financial planners and other trusted professionals. From cryptocurrency and real estate to term deposits and shares, they approach their victims with offers of once-in-a-lifetime, high return/low risk investments. Trouble is, it’s rarely authentic. Once they gain your interest and trust, they request payments to ‘secure’ the amazing opportunity – only for that money to never be seen again.

Job scams

These types of scams typically promise very attractive job opportunities with very minimal effort. Scammers impersonate an employer, advertise fake positions on legitimate job sites and can even directly contact individuals through messaging platforms or email. The catch comes when victims are required to make an upfront payment for training or to guarantee their new position. Scammers may also request sensitive personal information as part of the employee onboarding process, such as Tax File Numbers, home addresses and bank account details.

Identity theft

Over a period of time, scammers use a variety of means to build a detailed profile of your most sensitive personal documents and information. Armed with things like your passport, driver’s licence, TFN, birth certificate, banking details and photos, they then recreate your identity. This allows them to access your existing financial accounts, and even apply for new credit cards and loans in your name. They may also try to sell your identity to other cyber criminals.

Toll Scams

Thousands of Australians use toll roads every day and scammers know it. These scams typically use emails and text messages pretending to be from toll road operators requesting you to click on links to pay for tolls, or warning of overdue or unpaid bills. Often, they’ll also use threats of fines, penalties or fees if you do not pay immediately. If you ever think you may have an unpaid toll invoice, check first by logging onto your toll provider’s website or app directly.

Crypto Scams

The meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, has caught out many unsuspecting investors, with scammers promising amazing ‘guaranteed’ returns that are simply too good to be true. The ACCC warns Australians to avoid making cash transfers into obscure or unverified cryptocurrencies, especially as there is usually very little in the way of paper trail or documentation. Also be very wary of crypto providers who want to withhold investment earnings for ‘tax purposes’ and unusual tokens that appear in your digital wallet that you did not trade yourself.

Threat & Penalty Scams

Rather than subtle deception, these scams are all about aggression and fear. Scammers will contact their victims with highly demanding phone calls (sometimes using recorded messages), emails or text messages impersonating official organisations with threats of penalties, arrest, legal action and even physical harm if they don’t provide immediate information and/or payment. Scammers are even known to victimise victims, targeting people again who have already lost money to other scams by claiming to be money-recovery agents.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams

BEC is a form of targeted phishing, sometimes known as ‘spear phishing’. Scammers use official looking emails – and even real compromised email addresses – to impersonate people within an organisation, deceiving their victims into making fake payments, filling bogus orders or revealing sensitive company information. Increasing work-from-home arrangements have seen BEC scams on the rise worldwide since the pandemic.

Malware

Malware refers to malicious viruses and software programs that are used to unknowingly ‘infect’ computers, devices or networks. Scammers use it for many purposes including corporate spying, stealing personal information, sabotage and extorting payment from individuals and businesses. Malware often acts like a Trojan horse, hiding its true purpose behind a seemingly legitimate program or app.