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Australians are being urged to learn how to spot a scam after damage has doubled over the past twelve months.

Combined losses of over $2 billion were reported last year and that figure is expected to reach $4 billion this year, with incidents reported to Scamwatch already significantly higher than 2021.

Gone are the days when most of us were reasonably certain we could spot a ‘Nigerian Prince’ suggesting we were his long-lost relative. And following the recent hacking of Optus and Medibank Private data (amongst others) we are being urged to be even more wary of targeted emails.

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard warns that scammers evolve quickly, and their tactics are becoming increasingly sophisticated and unscrupulous.

“There have been hundreds of reports to Scamwatch in the weeks after the recent high profile data breaches and that is expected to continue”, Rickard says.

“Cyber criminals have capitalised on the data breach by impersonating government departments and businesses to carry out identity theft and remote access scams.”

The ACCC offers the following tips for avoiding scams.

Stop

– Take your time before giving money or personal information to anyone.
– Scammers will offer to help you or ask you to verify who you are. They will pretend to be from organisations you know and trust like a business you deal with, police, government or fraud service.

Think

– Ask yourself could the message or call be fake?
– Never click a link in a message. Only contact businesses or government using contact information from their official website or through their secure apps. If you’re not sure say no, hang up or delete.

Protect

– Act quickly if something feels wrong.
– Contact your bank immediately if you lose money or personal information or if you notice some unusual activity on you cards or accounts. Seek help from organisations like IDCARE and report online crime to ReportCyber. Help others by reporting scams to Scamwatch.

Take precautionary action now

– Make your accounts as safe as your home. Set up extra steps on your accounts to stop people getting in.
– Add more steps to show who you are when you log into your online services and apps. This is called Multi Factor Authentication.
– This could be a code sent to your phone, a token or secret question. Your face or fingerprint or voice can also be the key to let you into your accounts.
– Ask your banks and service providers how to add more checks so no one can pretend to be you. And don’t forget to tell them if you have been in a data breach.

As part of the national scam prevention campaign, the ACCC is rolling out a series of short educational videos, featuring simple and practical tips to help people identify and protect themselves from scams. These are being shared on social media and available to view on YouTube and the Scams Awareness Week web page.

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