How do you feel when you get one of these text messages?

Do you feel anxious? Do you feel guilty? Do you feel angry? or do you think this is just another attempt to steal your money from a scammer?

How you react when you see one of these text messages could determine a good or bad outcome from receiving one of these. 

Even the most vigilant of people can get tricked into scams on any given day as the scams become more sophisticated and we are using more online tools such as shopping, parcel delivery, and accounts such as travel, banking and tolls. There are many opportunities for us to receive messages regarding our accounts and payments and so on. 

The important thing to remember here is that if you receive a message with a link or phone number in it never click on the link and never ring that phone number. The odds are that this is a scam if it has either of these two options in the text and in particular if they are asking for money or your details as part of the outcome of receiving the message. 

Whenever you get a message from any company asking you to log in or update your details or pay a bill or fine You should go to the official website and contact them using official means rather than clicking on any links or ringing any numbers in a message you may receive. 

As a result of data breaches from companies such as Optus and Medibank private, we are seeing an enormous amount of Scam messages and attempts at getting your details from many different places and in many different forms.

But following the basic rules of spotting a scam should still be enough to see us clear of most of these scam attempts. For example, the image in this post contains either a link or a phone number for you to respond to which would put you in danger of giving your information to a scammer or contacting a fake tech support scammer who would try to gain access to your computer and then get hold of your banking details. 

If you do get scammed, however, do not be embarrassed or ashamed please share your story with others as this is the only thing we can do to help fight against the scammers. we can of course contact our bank and try and recover money identities after we have been scammed but sharing a story and preventing other people from getting scammed is the best thing we can do to help fight the scammers. 

Report scams to Scamwatch HERE

Ask for help HERE