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Common scams you should know about

Common Scams You Should Know About

Common scams you should know about

Scammers are pretty good these days. Whether it is on the phone, online or via text message, scammers are getting very good at tricking their victims. Scammers often catch people off guard with realistic looking messages when they least expect it. Scammers often have the goal of gaining money from their victims, or gaining their login details to something like a bank account so that they can then get money out.

Banking scams are some of the most common scams out there. Scammers know that if they can get access to someone’s bank account, they could potentially gain access to all of their money. Many of the major banks do have sections on their websites where customers can read news about currently known scams. Here is a list of links to the big 4 banking websites and their scam pages. If you are a customer of one of these banks, it might be a good idea to bookmark the page and check it regularly. If you happen to receive a suspicious message you can check these sites pages to see if it’s a known scam, or you can even report it to the bank yourself.

Banking scams aren’t the only ones out there, although they are popular, scammers know there are lots of other ways that they can trick someone into sending their sensitive personal details. Here are some other recent scams:

  • There was a scammer pretending to be Netflix, see the news story here
  • There was also someone trying to scam pretending to be PayPal, see the news story here.
  • There was also someone scamming and pretending to be Australia post, see the new story here.
  • There was also someone scamming and pretending to be Amazon, see the news story here.
  • There was also someone scamming and pretending to be the nbn, see the news story here.

As you can see from the stories above, scams can appear from almost anywhere. If you believe that messages you are receiving from a company are suspicious it’s best not to respond to them.  Don’t engage with something that may be a scam if you are feeling unsure about it, doing so may put you at risk. Also, don’t feel pressured by scammers messages. Contact the company directly yourself and report the message.

Below are some examples of real scams that were 100% fake, but yet, they were used to trick many Australians into handing over money or sensitive personal information. We must all be very careful out there. Always check the source of where the message has come from before responding.

3 Tips To Spot A Fake

  • If it is sent via email, check the email address it was sent from before replying. If you don’t recognise the email address and it’s not from the company’s website name. Then it may be fake. For example, IPSTAR will always send out emails from @ipstarbroadband.com.au, [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]
  • Check the website that the scammer is using. Scammers aren’t able to use the official websites of brands, like https://www.netflix.com/au/ or https://www.amazon.com.au/. So what a scammer will do is make fake websites that look similar to the real website but the url will be different. Always check the url of websites first if you are leaving your personal information there and make sure the url belongs to on an official website of the brand you are interacting with.
  • If you were called on the phone or sent a text message and think it’s suspicious. Google that phone number and see if it is linked to the company that tried to call you. You may find that it isn’t. If you are unsure if you should call that number back. Don’t. Call the official number on the the official company website instead. All of IPSTAR’s phone numbers for example can be found on our website here: https://ipstarbroadband.com.au/