With data security firmly in the spotlight thanks to recent significant security breaches, South Australians are being urged to be extra vigilant with their personal information.
This week is Scams Awareness Week, with regulators around Australia looking to alert the community to tell-tale scam signs and the more common ways that unscrupulous scammers seek to steal personal information and money from their victims.
Figures from the ACCC have shown that in the nine months to September, the top three most common scams around Australia have been investment scams (with more than $292 million lost), dating and romance scams (with more $29 million lost) and remote access scams (with more than $18 million lost).
For more on how to spot a scam, visit https://www.cbs.sa.gov.au/campaigns/how-spot-scam.
To report a scam, visit www.scamwatch.gov.au or if you think you’ve given your personal information to a scammer, contact IDCARE at
Quotes
Attributable to Minister Michaels
As technology continues to evolve, so do scammers.
It’s disturbing to think in the first three quarters of this year, South Australians have lost more than $22 million to scammers. That’s an increase of nearly $3 million on the amount reported lost by South Australians for the whole of last year.
These figures highlight why it is so important to stay vigilant and think twice before handing over your personal details to a stranger over the phone. Never do this – even if they claim to be representing a trusted institution such as your bank or a government agency.
It’s advisable to source contact details for the organisation independently and call back using a contact number you know to be accurate.
Never click on a link in unsolicited text messages without first verifying their authenticity, and make sure you have multifactor authentication on all important accounts.
And importantly, if you think you have been scammed, contact your bank and authorities as quickly as possible.
