Received a text message about a missed delivery of something you definitely didn’t order? Or has a new love interest you met online asked if you can lend them some money? These are just two examples of common scams that happen right here in Australia, and if you’re not careful, they can catch you out of pocket.
Scams are costing everyday Aussies billions of dollars every year, putting both individual’s livelihoods and whole businesses at risk. With new technology, they’re also getting harder to avoid and harder to spot, as scammers are finding more creative and inventive ways to swindle money or personal information. Scammers use a variety of methods to target unaware individuals – from spam calls, texts, emails, fake websites, advertisements and even new tech such as AI is being used by scammers to make fake videos and images to trick unsuspecting individuals in 2024.
Scams don’t just threaten your bank balance – some scammers might even try to steal your identity, which can cause all sorts of issues far beyond just the financial loss. The best way to avoid being scammed is to know what to look for, and find ways to protect your finances and data online – to make it easier, we’ve done the research and compiled a list of the most common scams here in Australia, and explain how to protect yourself – and what you can do if you’ve accidentally fallen victim to a scam.
Monthly snapshot – February 2024
It’s Taylor Swift month in Australia – and with the artist set to perform sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, it’s particularly important to be careful when trying to find tickets to The Eras Tour at the last minute. The high demand and time pressure creates a prime opportunity for scammers to sell Swifties fake tickets when they’re worried they’ll miss out on the chance to support their favourite artist. There are official resale channels such as Ticketek Marketplace and Tixel, but if you’re buying from someone on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree or directly from someone you don’t know, you put yourself at risk of not only missing the concert, but also potentially losing money and putting your information at risk in the process.
Since we’re only two months into the new year, there’s no official numbers on the amount of scams occurring in 2024, but we can take a look at previous years to see how much damage scammers are causing Aussies financially. Back in 2022, Australians reportedly lost over AU$3.1 billion to scams, and while the numbers for 2023 are yet to be finalised, they’re not looking good. Scamwatch is already reporting a loss of over AU$455 million up until November of last year alone, and that’s just from one of the many authorities included in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) 2022 scams report.
It’s not all bad news however – for starters, that number is still less than the AU$569 million reported to Scamwatch in the previous year, and with one month’s worth of data yet to be calculated, it’s hopefully not going to hit that same peak. Additionally, the number of reported scams on Scamwatch has increased by over 50K year-on-year, which indicates that more Aussies are clued in and willing to report scams than they were in 2022. However, that increase could also show that there’s more scams going out than ever before, and in 2024, everyday Aussies are seeing a wide variety of scams pop up in different ways.
Current & common scams in Australia
Unpaid tolls
A common scam that peaks during certain times of the year has to do with unpaid tolls. In this instance, an email or text message is sent claiming that you haven’t paid your toll fees, and urging you to pay it ASAP via a suspicious link. It’s easy to spot if you don’t drive near any toll roads, but if you’re a frequent driver, the scammer is hoping you’ll panic and click through to pay your fake overdue fees before you realise what’s actually happening.
False delivery texts
Have you received multiple unexpected SMS messages throughout January 2024 regarding undeliverable parcels? We certainly did – several members of our team provided snapshots of frequent text messages from random mobile numbers claiming that their delivery address needed to be updated. Often, these would be received around the same time, either in the morning, hoping to catch people who have just woken up, or in the evening, multiple times a week, pretending to be from companies like Australia Post. They would include suspicious links to ‘solve’ the delivery issues, which will lead the recipient to dodgy websites that can steal your information – never click on those links.
Subscription renewal/new sign up scams
There’s a subscription service for just about anything, and scammers have been known to impersonate brands, as well as create fake ones, in order to try and get your money or extract valuable personal information such as passwords. A subscription renewal or new sign up scam typically involves you being contacted unexpectedly via email, text or phone call by a scammer impersonating a brand. For example, the scammer may claim to be a representative from Amazon, and they may create a sense of urgency to renew your membership or subscription through a malicious link.
Government/tax-refund failure scams
Phishing scams typically involve scammers impersonating a well-known or trusted organisation, and scammers routinely pose as government institutions such as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or Centrelink. People are particularly vulnerable to tax-refund failure scams around tax time, but you can find instances of scammers impersonating government authorities all year round.
One of our colleagues at TechRadar was sent a message claiming to be from “Service Australia” in October 2023, trying to convince him to click on a suspicious link to update Centrelink payments details. This was quickly spotted as a fake, it’s Services Australia for one, and two, the link included in the text did not match that of the official website of Services Australia.
Facebook Marketplace & PayID scams
Scams on Facebook Marketplace and similar websites can target both buyers and sellers, and listings themselves can be for products that don’t exist. One particular scam on Facebook Marketplace which targets sellers involves a buyer requesting to make a payment via PayID, which means the seller will have to share their phone number or email. The seller will then receive a fake PayID email or text message, claiming that their PayID account requires a minimum amount and the scammer will offer to pay the extra so long as they get a refund right away. However, the unsuspecting seller is then left out of pocket with no successful sale if they follow through with it.
Fake celebrity endorsements
These scams tend to be found as advertisements on websites including Facebook and YouTube (but can really pop up anywhere, including on major news and entertainment websites) where the scammer has paid for a sponsored ad placement. They feature a well-known Australian individual such as a celebrity or politician, who’s being impersonated through video manipulation or photo editing, often with an outrageous claim alongside the image. The ads will often use a salacious ‘clickbait’ style heading, such as claiming to expose a shocking scandal, or tips for getting rich with cryptocurrency.
Current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, TV personalities David Koch and Richard Wilkinson, entrepreneur Dick Smith, and many other prominent Australian figures have been impersonated online to try and con users into clicking onto sites that could have malware, or attempt to trick you into providing personal information or invest in too-good-to-be-true cryptocurrency schemes.
Unofficial ticket resellers
Unofficial or fraudulent ticket resellers is another form of a buying or selling scam. With big artists such as Taylor Swift, Blink-182, Coldplay and Pink all touring in Australia in 2024, many fans are desperately trying to find tickets to massive sold-out concerts. You should be very careful about buying tickets from unofficial resellers however, as this is a prime opportunity for scammers to take advantage of keen concert goers by selling fake tickets through places including Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Gumtree. We highly recommend you go through official resellers, such as Ticketek Marketplace and Tixel, for each concert, otherwise you might suffer from more than just FOMO (fear of missing out).
Fake products
Since the early days of online shopping, consumers have been reporting scams involving false advertising. This is an ongoing issue to this day, with scammers often copying the details from a legitimate product listing and posting it on a fake website or under a fake profile on a genuine one. The scammer poses as a real online seller by promising products they don’t actually have, and instead sending unaware buyers junk knock-offs or nothing at all. Places such as Temu and Wish have been known to have product listings like this, but it’s an issue found far and wide across the web.
Scams in Australia: key information
What is a scam?
A scam is a scheme that attempts to steal either money or personal information from an unsuspecting party (either an individual or a business) through lies, manipulation and false pretences. Scammers are able to reach more people now than ever due to evolving communication technologies – you can be scammed in person, on the phone, through text messages or emails, across social media or simply by visiting a fake website. Each and every year there are new scams popping up, though these typically fall under one of seven major categories.
What are the different types of scams?
According to the ACCC’s Scamwatch, there are seven main types of scams:
Romance scams
These scams involve convincing someone into, or promising some kind of relationship, including both romantic and platonic, so the scammer can take advantage of the unsuspecting party’s finances.
Investment scams
In this case, the scammer will try to get you to invest in some scheme – it could involve something like cryptocurrency, NFTs, or some other get-rich-quick opportunity that involves an initial monetary investment from you to get started. Investment scams typically involve the loss of large sums of money, and can be devastating to both individuals and businesses.
Product and service scams
Product scams have been rife since the early days of the internet – we’ve likely all heard the horror story of someone buying a product only for it to be something completely different on arriva, or never show up at all. These scams still exist, and can even take the form of a service rather than a physical object. Basically, with this type of scam, you don’t get what you pay for, and can even put your sensitive information such as payment and contact details at risk.
Threat and extortion scams
Some scammers will threaten to cause some form of harm to you or someone you know if you don’t go along with a request. These types of scams might suggest they have compromising photos, or claim to hijack your PC among other scary situations in order to take advantage of your fear and urgency.
Jobs and employment scams
It can already be a challenge to find a job, and scammers have found ways to use this to their advantage. A job or employment scam might involve some monetary contribution to hold a promised position offered to someone, or it could involve false job advertisements where your information is stolen on application.
Unexpected money
If it’s too good to be true, it likely is. While we’d all like to win the lotto, you need to play it safe if you get a sudden message saying you’ve won a large sum of cash, whether you’ve bought a ticket or not. Scammers will often try to coax you into giving away important information or money before you can claim your winnings in these types of scams.
Impersonation scams
Impersonation takes many forms – you might find someone catfishing on a dating website, or receive an email from someone pretending to be your boss. These scams will attempt to be someone else to get you to do something, like clicking a link or transferring money, that puts your funds or data at risk. This can also involve impersonating well-known figures like celebrities or politicians, or even hit an emotional point by pretending to be a family member in need.
Scams in Australia: how to stay safe
How to protect yourself
Scams can target anyone, but there are some measures you can take to minimise the risk of falling for one.
- Update your privacy settings for any online accounts, including social media
This can stop scammers from getting access to personal contact information such as emails or phone numbers. Additionally, it can help to prevent bad actors from using your information to scam others, as some scammers will create entire false profiles using information they’ve stolen off social media in an attempt to trick others who might know you.
- Examine links before you click
Be critical of any suspicious links in emails and texts, or unknown phone numbers which attempt to contact you, especially when the contact is unexpected. In a phishing attempt, scammers will often include malicious links to get you to hand over personal data. Check spelling in the URL, and look out for any out-of-place characters. See if links you’ve been sent match what appears when you Google the organisation’s name.
- Keep your devices up-to-date
Keeping your device’s softwares up-to-date can help to filter out unwanted calls, texts or emails thanks to spam filters that can stop potentially harmful communications from coming through. Brands like Microsoft, Apple and Google are constantly adding in new security features, while also reducing support for older software, meaning that an outdated web browser, for example, might be more prone to viruses and malware. Having one of the best antivirus software installed, or one of the best VPNs can also help to secure your PC on the chance that someone clicks a scam link.
- Have strong and secure passwords
Make sure your passwords are strong and secure, and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) when you can. This will help stop scammers, especially if they’re attempting to access any of your accounts remotely. Best practice is to make sure you have a separate password for each and every account, and there’s password managers available to help stop you from forgetting them. Passphrases are more difficult to guess than passwords, and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has a helpful guide for creating passphrases.
- Be cautious when shopping online
When making purchases online, you can prevent scams from taking your money by using payment methods with inbuilt security measures. Some methods include using a credit card, or PayPal, which has a buyer protection policy, plus some online marketplaces also have safeguards like eBay’s Money Back Guarantee or Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee.
Keeping informed about scams is the best way to stay protected. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to filter out all possible scams and you’d basically have to go off grid to avoid most of them. Even then, old-fashioned scammers can still target people in person. If you know what to look for, you’ll be ahead of any scammer and also able keep your family and friends aware of any happening right now – they might be in a more vulnerable position to fall for a scam, particularly if they’re not tech-savvy, and scammers prey on vulnerabilities to get what they want.
How to spot a scam
While scammers are constantly finding new ways to mislead someone, there’s a few ways to spot a scam:
- Look for suspicious URLs that contain spelling errors or incorrect domains. You can use ICANN Lookup to verify if a web address is legitimate or not.
- Double check any email addresses – phishing emails will often have an error with the email address, such as the domain not matching the sender’s company.
- Random numbers are often spoofed for scam calls and texts – you can search numbers on the internet to see if they’ve been used in scams previously.
- Photos or videos of celebrities and politicians used out of context with some outrageous claim are often scams, and you can use reverse image search engines like TinEye to find the original source.
- Deepfakes can also be spotted by looking at the details – a video might be really low quality to hide imperfections, or an image might have strange shadows or unrealistic features.
What to do if you get scammed
It’s easy to fall victim to a scam – it’s pretty likely that most of us will at least come close to it at some point in our lives. If you find yourself in this position, there are some things you can do to minimise financial loss and harm:
- Secure your data and finances
If you’ve lost money in a scam, or the scammer has gained access to any bank accounts (or you just suspect they have), you’ll want to contact your financial institution as soon as possible. If you’ve made a payment through a credit card or via PayPal, there’s safeguards in place to help get your money back. Other methods such as PayID and bank transfers might have a few more hoops to jump through with no guaranteed success, but you should be able to at least lock any accounts to prevent further loss.
You’ll also want to look into securing any compromised accounts. This can be as simple as changing your passwords, and you can check Have I Been Pwned? to see if any emails or passwords have been leaked. You also might want to consider setting up two-factor authentication to prevent any further unwanted sign-ins.
Immediately after contacting your bank or financial institution, you should get in touch with a governing body that specialises in scams. These places will have resources to help you minimise any potential loss and report it.
If you’ve been targeted by a scammer but you haven’t handed over any money or personal details, report it to Scamwatch. If you’ve lost money or had your personal details stolen by a scammer, report it to ReportCyber. More details for reporting and recovering from scams are available on the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) website.
Here’s a list of websites with contacts and resources to help support you if you’ve been scammed:
Reporting a scam can also help these institutions to spread awareness about scams, hopefully preventing others from falling victim in the future.
If you’re concerned about your identity being compromised due to a scam, IDCARE is a support service that has resources and the ability to help you make your identity secure again after being scammed.
Additionally, you might want to contact any companies where your accounts have been compromised. Big telcos such as Telstra and Optus have resources to help customers in the event of a scam, including dedicated spaces to keep track of current scams and how to report them. Additionally, Optus also has a dedicated resource for current customers in Optus ScamWise, which offers more in-depth information, such as how many scam texts and calls Optus is blocking on a weekly basis.
If you’ve fallen for a scam at work, such as a phishing email, you’ll want to let your workplace’s IT department know as soon as possible.
- Seek support from family, friends and professionals
Being scammed can do a number on your wellbeing, so it’s important to lean into your support group while you navigate this situation. If you can, talk to someone you feel comfortable with, and reach out to professionals such as therapists and counsellors who can help you navigate any emotions or feelings you have during this time.
Wanda Parisien is a computing expert who navigates the vast landscape of hardware and software. With a focus on computer technology, software development, and industry trends, Wanda delivers informative content, tutorials, and analyses to keep readers updated on the latest in the world of computing.
