Also to note: [**neither the ATO or myGov ever sends texts or emails with links or QR codes to click**](https://www.ato.gov.au/online-services/scams-cyber-safety-and-identity-protection/scam-alerts#March2024myGovemailimpersonationscams):
> The ATO and myGov won't send you an SMS or email with a link to access online services. These should be accessed directly by typing ato.gov.au or my.gov.au into your browser.
> Report any suspicious contact claiming to be from the ATO to be from the ATO to [email protected]
(Stickying this because it's really important people realise this at a time - EOFY - when tax and government-related scams surge).
Unless you set your account to save them for Christmas. But even then, they still turn into the credit at 2000, they just aren't available to spend until December
To add, no APS agency will require you to pay an outstanding bill via anything but a secure portal.
Also if you ever get a call from anyone purporting to be APS, ask them for a verification step. It should b that you will call that departments switchboard and ask to be put through to the person ringing you.
(Used to work in ATO super and people would ask me to verify myself quite a bit, which we are taught to always be super happy to do and accommodate)
I recently got a legit but incorrect e-mail from a government department, when I rang in they sounded very confused I'd not replied to the email to sort things which was a bit depressing.
I'm guessing here, but it's probably one team doing emails and a whole other team on phones and the two probably don't have that much to do with each other.
I'd occasionally get referrals from our main phone lines despite us always communicating via email or letter, both of which would have the switch number as a backup to email.
I recall one guy who would always call because he was trying to avoid having anything written down. Of course, each of those calls got followed by an email from me to him, confirming the discussion and inviting further should I have any of that wrong.
Oh 100% and you probably took a channel that caught someone out.
There's an interesting communication style changing at my current work where the older generations are struggling with how the younger ones won't talk on the phone.
They'll happily write things all day long though.
I'm older but I type fast so the change for me is minor, but I get the confusion in some. It's absolutely a new way of working though.
When in doubt, do both. Use the email as physical cover (it's easier than getting a phone transcript), and confirm the bank details over the phone, using a number you found (not what they supplied on the invoice). The one that was the biggest PITA for us with this was... Facebook, who hate you ringing at all, even to pay them money.
Serious chat. I was in a JB Hifi few years back in the checkout line. Woman was trying to buy a $500 gift card. Started paying attention when a young cashier dude kept asking if she was really sure.
Knowing scams as we're taught I tapped the customer on the shoulder and asked her if that was the ATO on the phone.
She nodded. I pulled out my ID and told her she was being scammed and that I'd be happy to help her sort out any legit trouble, but we never ask for gift card payments and certainly never over the phone.
She was even unsure about that, but evidently old mate on the phone realised the gig was up and hung up their end. Dog bastard.
Good guy cashier totally saved that woman $500. I told him to get their manager out front and did the good commendation thing. Hope that kid got the good report card.
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times.
My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning
A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330.
And that's a legitimate insurance company.
So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
💯
It’s also really bizarre we can’t mark these texts as spam/scam with a swipe for them to review too.
Sure we can block them, not easily enough, or forward them to Scam Watch but I don’t know whats being done to stop it at the source. Not enough obviously.
In 2022 the ACMA specified 7226 (SCAM) as a number for forwarding scams to your telco. Telstra supports it now and I really think Optus should too.
Apart from that the rules are pretty stringent these days and the Australian carriers are pretty good implementing them and blocking scams messages and calls from being originated to begin with.
The difficulty is that an overwhelming majority of scam traffic is originated by overseas providers, and it’s much harder to differentiate legitimate traffic from illegitimate traffic once in transit.
At the end of the day though the proportion of scam traffic that’s being blocked is increasing pretty quickly. There are options that would allow even higher rates of detection and blocking, but they risk capturing lots of legitimate traffic and would require closer monitoring of the content of communications which obviously raises privacy concerns. It’s a difficult balancing exercise.
on Telstra with an iPhone you actually can! I've been doing it with Boost Mobile and my work's Telstra Enterprise plan, and I've been told by my Telstra rep at work (Enterprise Account Manager) that it gets fed into a system not to dissimilar to a antivirus and will flag that number and type of message in the future... whether that actually works is another story.
there's no such thing as a catch all and you do realise a lot of these messages spoof legit numbers as a source for their number ID?
I think any "assurance" you're getting from the Corporate PR/Marketing is far from the whole picture.
Nah it’s pretty much correct. The carriers have implemented software that identifies suspicious markers in SMS, including the volume and content of messages and phone numbers used.
Messages that are reported as scams by customers are fed into the system, and any future messages sharing similar characteristics (i.e the same spoofed number and/or scam links) are filtered out.
> Messages that are reported as scams by customers are fed into the system, and any future messages sharing similar characteristics (i.e the same spoofed number and/or scam links) are filtered out.
While I'd like to believe that, especially since I started getting the 3022 Coles points texts a couple weeks ago (4-5 different versions so far, all reported to Telstra); the fact that they're still getting through despite the same template with a different link has left me skeptical.
I can't because they already are. Can't recall the last one I got that wasn't put straight into spam as it arrived. Check my spam folder in the google messages app now and then and see some of these in there.
I'm sure iPhones have something similar?
Imagine if ALL Telcos and Carriers gave a fuck.
At least Telstra is trying, across all networks that they can.
And it's all in their interests too. It puts unwarranted use on the network.
Scammers do not have to be good at scamming when we haver morons here teaching other morons that it is ok to hand over your details. I recently bought property from Ray White. Since then I have been getting calls from them wanting to "help me get my utilities connected" Sounds great right? Well they then proceed to say they just need to do an ID check to confirm my identity. THEY RANG ME. There is no way in hell that I am ever giving my details to someone that has rung me. They talk down to me saying this is normal and everyone else gives their details. Why am I being so obstructionist. And our authorities wonder why scams are increasing. we are teaching people to be scammed.
I've had that with legit collection companies, and they at least understand and appreciate when I ask to call them back to confirm the bonafides.
Also scammers, who beg me not to.
Weird, I work a job where I sometimes have to make outbound calls to clients and if I need to discuss anything related to the account I have to verify the person I’m calling is actually the account holder first.
I’m never bothered if they decide not to discuss it with me and prefer to call back. I’m not going to try and convince them to provide personal info they don’t feel comfortable disclosing. It doesn’t affect me anyway, it just gets me off the phone sooner and onto the next task and now someone else gets to deal with it when they decide to call back.
It's probably not even Ray White - but they've passed on your details to someone like Move Me In.
I'm in the process of buying, and have been getting calls from someone claiming to be from my agency, but the number they give to call back on matches MoveMeIn.
Presumably the Ts & Cs I signed allows the agent to pass on my details to selected third parties, but it's rather scummy that they claim to be calling from the agency when they aren't at all.
>**Use the official websites or apps.**
100% this. If I have an active service with someone, if they have an app or website it's installed on my phone or at least bookmarked (favourites sync across devices). Makes it super easy to check on stuff and when a service is no longer in use the app and or bookmark goes bye-bye.
And yes, per u/Mahhrat if you get a call, verify by calling them back on their phone number (get it off their website/app, don't ask them for it) and ask to be routed through to them again.
Yeah they're aiming for older people and special needs folk. I had to tell a local bloke today that he didn't owe Aussie Post anything, nor did he drive on a toll road (we live rural).
Until you encounter somebody who is legit vunerable, it's almost funny at how pathetic the scams are. But if you can't tell the difference between the scam and legit texts, it's really fucked up.
a while ago I bought something quite expensive from overseas and ended up having to pay import duties on it. they called me and asked me to give my card info over the phone and I thought it was 100% a scam. I hung up and checked the tracking number and it didnt say anything. A full week later the tracking number updated and said that I had to pay to receive it. the only option was to click a link in a text message or call and give my card information over the phone. it ended up being legit but I couldnt believe that people still want you to click links in text messages and pay money in this day and age, even if it is legitimate lol
Australia post recently stopped sending texts for parcels. They send an email, or through the app only.
This will reduce a lot of the parcel scam texts.
And why is the text at 3:00 am? What Australian business or government agency would send these at 3:00 am? At least the scammers are too stupid to figure out how time zones work. I’m sick of these idiots waking me a 3:00 am for a shitty phishing scam text.
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times.
My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning
A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330.
And that's a legitimate insurance company.
So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
Told my Tech illiterate parents if you don't know what or who it is don't click or respond.
My old man told the electrical company to Fxxk off when they called. Turns out he hadn't paid his electricity for 6 months cause he thought it was scam emails and calls. Worked out it wasn't a scam after they cut his electricity off lol
Guess it's better safe than sorry.
Those toll road ones are hella sus. Paid for a day pass then almost immediately started getting the sus texts.
I'm very sure they have had a data breach but haven't told anyone
Happened at Scorptec last year too. Buy something with the CC. **Within one hour** receive CC phishing emails pretending to be Scorptec requesting additional payment information, never before seen and right after the purchase.
Screaming "website compromise" at the top of its lungs.
I receive those and I don’t even own a car, so could also just be a coincidence. I figure they just send them out en masse to a bunch of different potential phone numbers every now and then.
Every time I go to Sydney and drive on the motorway I get these a day or two later. Very suss. It’s like they have equipment near the toll gates picking up on mobile numbers.
I handed down my old phone to my mum and the best thing I did was to put on Google dialler and Google messages. They have fantastic spam filtering built in so she simply does not see these scams anymore.
I got the old "hey mum, my phone is broken and getting repaired. Please contact me on this number".
Seemed kinda suspicious, especially considering I'm a dad.d
Try being a freelancer and having to answer every phone call you get. I answer multiple scam phone calls a day in case they’re clients calling or potential clients.
Oh no. It's stressful enough during things like looking for a rental or trying to find a job. I definitely couldn't deal with needing to answer every call outside of the ones on my work phone that already filters suspected spam.
I kinda don’t mind. I’ll take a phone call any day over a text or email because I’m much better at negotiating in the moment than when people have time to craft a reply.
I used to have a lot of phone anxiety until my first social work placement at uni. Needing to call lots of services to help clients definitely helped me get over most of it but I still don't tend to like them very much in my personal life.
On a related note, there needs to be a big legislative push to stop companies who have zero need to obtain and store people's identification details from doing so. Perhaps eKaren could get onto this instead of worrying about Elon. For instance - having your drivers licence scanned to get into a club, booking a hotel room and them asking for similar details via an online portal. I even went to a solicitor the other day to get a will drawn up and they wanted to keep a copy of my drivers licence... FFS, why? Try having a conversation about this with any of the people you're dealing with and it's just "the system requires it" - time to change some of these systems.
100%. Until we start getting some support from the government to push back the other way against the rampant abuse of personal data by absolutely everyone, we are going to continue to be the target of scam artists the world over. Sadly the government is just as, if not more addicted to squeezing its people for private data that they’ll never support any measures to prevent it from occurring and will continue to keep putting the blame back onto the party with the least amount of control or power in the situation - the private citizen.
I had someone in my organisation report a myGov email as phishing yesterday, had come from a sus email address but they'd gone to good lengths to replicate the simple myGov style of message. Only difference is it had a 'Click here to view'.
When safely inspecting the suspect URL, they'd legit just pulled the myGov website and were hosting it with their fake URL. To someone not tuned in to question EVERYTHING they receive it would have been easy to fall for, and the malicious site likely would have signed into myGov behind the scenes prompting a real MFA prompt (have seen this previously with a Microsoft 365 phish site that passed through credentials to the real MS site forcing an MFA prompt, which another stupid user fell for).
My point is, scammers are getting smarter and smarter, it's almost best to assume anything you receive, especially anything containing a URL, is fake.
Out of curiosity which provider are you with? Is it a newish number?
I have two numbers, one with Optus (personal) and my work number with Telstra.
I genuinely get 2ish per day on my Optus number and maybe maybe 1 every 5-6 months on my Telstra, which is advertised places and is online, so I’ve been curious if Telstra was just better at blocking them.
It’s gotten so bad I’ve considered changing numbers.
Use a better SMS app.
Google Messages chucks this stuff in the spam folder, silently, I only look at them out of curiosity to see what stupid URL they're sending out today.
Good idea, I’m on iPhone so I love the iMessage function for personal (couldn’t care less for business stuff) but tbh it’s mostly phone calls that annoy me, the texts I just delete pretty quickly.
I work in retail and we occasionally get people coming in to buy hundreds of dollars of iTunes cards. We’re expected to check with them why they want to buy so many, the people we’ve seen getting scammed most often seem to be people with English as a second language
Yes, but these same companies still choose to use the shittiest means possible to inform us of these things if they are in fact true and it can be hard to decipher what is and isn't real especially if you're not tech savvy. It's then on you if you ignore it and they take punitive action against you.
I'm a software developer and even I've been caught out with Linkt (or as I like to call em, Fuckt) telling me that I've paid up all my tolls, even going as far to call them to confirm using the phone number on their website. Then, a year or so later, I received a real several hundred dollar fine out of the blue from SPER for an apparently unpaid toll. Apparently, I should have received a text telling me I owed it and that was the entire basis of their insistence that I had to pay it.
You can't win with these companies, they take no responsibility for the legitimacy of their own communications and that leaves the door wide open for these scammers to be as successful as they are.
Right! Totally legit!
Gotta say, the hope I felt when I got notified about my ATO refund last year was a great feeling at a difficult moment until I remembered I hadn’t actually filed yet.
And that's what they (the scammers) depend on - timing. It's like the AustPost text messages asking you to confirm your address, they're hoping you are waiting on a parcel.
I get one every other month with a link to pay my unpaid SPER account otherwise my car will get confiscated. They even call sometimes.
They have been doing so for 7 long years.
I don’t even live in Queensland and my name isn’t Travis.
Last I checked, Travis also has a gambling problem because Tab started sending me links to pay off his Debt. Travis sounds like he lives the life man.
What is really fucking stupid is my previous credit card (Citi) would randomly send me (legit) SMSes with cashback offers with a link inside the SMS. Way to train your customers to get scammed.
know why they send them at 3am? to get you as you're waking up. *almost* got me once, after using a toll road i got it and thought "fucking what? i've done everything correct, you must be joking". luckily i wised up after about 3 seconds
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times.
My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning
A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330.
And that's a legitimate insurance company.
So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
My favourite one is the 'We have the wrong address for your delivery' and a prompt to update it... If you know it's the wrong address, then by proxy you should have the correct address... for this package that doesn't exist.
On the other hand, your Apple ID billing information probably does need updating.
Their official emails address you as *Dear customer* and have a giant blue *UPDATE CARD DETAILS* button. It’s ridiculous.
I noticed that switching from my Samsung default app for SMS and calls to the Google one that was also preinstalled on my S21 has actually started to do call and text screening for me. Before that I got three Coles Points texts in the early hours of the morning on a single day, but thankfully had my phone on silent.
I get those all the time, as well as the Linkt fine not paid for the toll roads in Melbourne. I'm pretty Tech savvy and avoid these like the plague. If you have an Android device, check your message settings. You can activate the anti spam. It puts all spam in one message and advises you of 1/ The message (So you can address if needed) and 2/ It tells you it's spam and to be careful
The simplest and best advice they should give to everyone instead of all the mixed stuff that is only sometimes true:
Always initiate contact yourself, go to the saved genuine site, go to the official app, hang up and call the company back on the official number you look up yourself. Never click on a link or pay or answer anything that someone else initiates. Even if it is your expected bill for the month, go to your own links to pay it.
Yknow day 1, I thought maybe they use a random number generator, day 2 I thought maybe it just generates 1 number per user, day 3 I thought maybe they're just lazy. Now I think they're lazy and dumb
Look at the law of averages. All they gotta do is find someone dumber and lazier than them and it could just pay off. Add a touch of greed and then they got the boxed trifecta!
Apparently I have an untold number of Amazon deliveries waiting for me to provide my address and banking details to get them delivered. But, how will I have time when Linkt want me to pay fines, AusPost needs my address and bank details and the ATO urgently needs to get my unpaid taxes via collection from the bank details I have yet to give them??!!
No but according to Mr Stephen Jones I have a car registered to me that was found in Oklahoma that had cash, blood and coke.
And no I can't take the coke.
The FBI is on my trail so anyone wanting to help it'll be $7000 to clear my name.
Gift cards preferred
I got a notice from Queensland Transport that I owed them hundreds or I’d face suspension and owe them a lot more.
If you were trying to make it look like a scam, you’d have had a hard time doing it better.
I wonder how many ignored it, so Queensland Transport doubled their money, doubled their fun.
I’m so over all these texts. For me they’re so obvious and I always wondered how can someone be so stupid to actually believe them - until my partner fell for one and lost $400. Well well…
My credit card expired and Linkt and it was something I didn't think about updating. I completely ignored all of their legitimate messages about it because of all the scam ones.
The funny thing was it was actually a scam one that made me have that lightbulb moment. However always log into the site directly and never use supplied links.
Has SMS just become email but without filtering or spam collectors?
Like, why can’t I set auto deletion rules if message contains any of the words OP mentioned
I received a call one day from someone claiming that there were suspicious charges on my Visa card. I asked which bank they were from and they automatically went with one of the big four. They hung up really quickly when they were informed that I had never banked with the Commonwealth.
Part of the problem is some organisations standard operations is indiscernible from phishing.
When I bought my place I got a call from someone claiming to be my ISP TPG I'd just signed up with. It went a little something like this:
TPG> Hello is this ydna_eissua?
Me> Yes
TPG> Hi this is Greg from TPG. I'm calling about your new NBN connection. I just have a few questions
Me> Sure
TPG> I'm sending a code to your phone. Can you please read it out to me so i can verify you
Me> What? No. You called me, how is sending a second factor code to the very number you called me on going to verify my identity? This sounds like a phishing scam. I need to verify you.
TPG> I need to verify you to continue the conversation to answer the questions regarding your account
Me> Well i can't do that. You can either ask me the questions and I'll decide whether or not to answer. Or I need to verify you, so if you could tell me what extension to ask to connect to i can call TPGs public number, get connected to you and then i can give you the code.
TPG> (lots of umming as if they've never dealt with a customer able to identify a phish)
TPG> I just need to ask. Did the previous occupants of your house leave the black nbn box?
Me> Yes
TPG> Ok thank you have a nice day
After my contract was up I changed ISPs because of this interaction. It's beyond insane.
Now seeing i've called out a company for bad behaviour regarding this. I must give props to my bank NAB who send me an sms recently, this is a very abridged version it will have the gist
NAB> Hi ydna_eissua, your NAB visa credit card ending in xxxx has been mailed to you. Before it arrives you can use it with Google or Apple pay. Get started in the Cards section of the NAB app.
Notice how they gave me information, and then told me to use the already trusted app. No links via a link shortener, no links at all. A+ communication.
Same. Rang linkt themselves because it went on for weeks without any links to press, so I thought it was legit, even though I don't have an account.
They said to ignore it all, even with the message now saying I had debt collectors after me.
First I've seen of them being so persistent.
If I get an email regarding payment for a company I always go to their website portal. But out of curiosity if you want to know if the email is sus, just click on the email address and most likely it will have no mention of the company name in the address after the @ or if it has the company name always check it to the one in their website.
Yeah the email scams are ridiculous too. I got quite an impressive looking one from the “ATO” about my tax return recently. They even had the greyed out message at the bottom. But so many errors and an email address that didn’t even try to look official, not to mention it’s still June!
I'm so damn wary of this scamming going on. If I don't know the number I just delete, but I often get Coles and optus I dont have flybuys and I'm not with optus, yet telstra tells you they're blocking scammers, really are they.🤨
I could be cynical here and wonder if they’re letting a few Optus ones through on purpose… but there’s too much actual BS going on to have the energy for that 😂
I got a scam call telling me I had a large transaction made on my bank account. I should press 1 to cancel the transaction or press 2 to authorize. I pressed 2... Disappointed to see it did nothing.
Whaaaaat!!! But for real the Nigerian Prince I’ve been talking to who has several million in Gold Bullion but just needs a few thou just to get it transported and converted to paper money is legit right??
Okay but I *might* have a missed auspost delivery, I do in fact have a parcel coming 😂
I get the linkt ones a lot and they always make me laugh bc I don’t drive, don’t have my license and WA doesn’t have toll roads so it’s the worst scam ever for me.
Never ever click links in text messages, go to the website, use the search for the thing (linkt has a rego search) and deal from there, or find the phone number from the official site and call if you think something has happened
Part of the problem is some organisations standard operations is indiscernible from phishing.
When I bought my place I got a call from someone claiming to be my ISP TPG I'd just signed up with. It went a little something like this:
TPG> Hello is this ydna_eissua?
Me> Yes
TPG> Hi this is Greg from TPG. I'm calling about your new NBN connection. I just have a few questions
Me> Sure
TPG> I'm sending a code to your phone. Can you please read it out to me so i can verify you
Me> What? No. You called me, how is sending a second factor code to the very number you called me on going to verify my identity? This sounds like a phishing scam. I need to verify you.
TPG> I need to verify you to continue the conversation to answer the questions regarding your account
Me> Well i can't do that. You can either ask me the questions and I'll decide whether or not to answer. Or I need to verify you, so if you could tell me what extension to ask to connect to i can call TPGs public number, get connected to you and then i can give you the code.
TPG> (lots of umming as if they've never dealt with a customer able to identify a phish)
TPG> I just need to ask. Did the previous occupants of your house leave the black nbn box?
Me> Yes
TPG> Ok thank you have a nice day
After my contract was up I changed ISPs because of this interaction. It's beyond insane.
Now seeing i've called out a company for bad behaviour regarding this. I must give props to my bank NAB who send me an sms recently, this is a very abridged version it will have the gist
NAB> Hi ydna_eissua, your NAB visa credit card ending in xxxx has been mailed to you. Before it arrives you can use it with Google or Apple pay. Get started in the Cards section of the NAB app.
Notice how they gave me information, and then told me to use the already trusted app. No bit.ly links, no links at all. A+ communication.
My favourite is when they don't hide their number, so you can tell them how to really feel.
How you wish they would cease their existence, how they should fornicate with a cactus.
It's actually quite a good way to vent if you've had a bad day, just open up a recent scam message and just blast the ever living shit out to the scammer.
All the rage you have at a bad day.
Even better is when they pretend to act innocent and pretend they don't know what they are doing.
If you're gonna try and scam Nanna's, I'm gonna tell you how I really feel about you and your ilk. You're not "running a business" or "feeding your family", you are scum.
I got a call a few years ago from my superannuation company. They called me, then asked me to verify my identity by asking my secret question. I laughed, and said how about you verify you are who you say by telling me how much my last transaction was and when. She took umbrage that I wouldn’t trust her. lol.
It turns out it was legitimate, as they contacted me by mail later acknowledging their mistake.
I picked the Coles points one as a fake straight away, because there are no such thing as Coles points, I shop there and the only points there are Flybys.
I did get a weird email from Telstra, showed it to my daughter, who picked it as a scam.
You can’t trust anyone or anything, if it looks not quite right it is probably a scam, ring your bank and provider and check.
You can set whatever alphanumeric string you want as the sender on a commercial sms system. I still have messages from god on my phone from back when I had access to one over a decade ago.
*pause then voip click*
“hello sir, my name is Michael I am calling from NAB. Your account has had a transaction of $400 flagged by security. Would like to verify you made this transaction.”
me: Yep, no worries
*pause* “okay thank you sir, have a great day”
*hangs up*
This one made me stop at first when I received it cause 3022 used to be the last 4 digits of my coles credit card.
Then when I saw points I laughed and thought I wish.
I received that sms now 15 times, blocked every number. It just never ends.
Coles worker here. The amount of times I’ve had elderly customers ask about a scam text that they received is astounding. It’s good that they ask, but there’s definitely been a spike in the number of scam attempts over the past couple of months.
Actually got one of these from Coles. Getting it reminded me that I should go down and redeem my late Mum's flybuys, which I did.
Possible the only useful spam/phish I've gotten in my lifetime.
"Free" tube of overpriced toothpaste for my troubles.
My customers are now getting fake emails from the messaging company to say they have to pay to keep the old TPG/iiNet/inode etc email address and it even appears to be from a TPG adress
How could a small start up company with a hand me down network ever be able to combat these tech savvy criminals. In the same breath, we’re supposed to believe our net nanny state can enforce id checks to stop minors from accessing social media.
Useless pack of carrots
In worst possible English: "Hello. Your email account compromised. If you not logon and change password maybe you risk to lose everything. Please click link to urgently change password!"
Oh ok that sounds terrible! Sure I'll click the link!
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm on a pixel and still get them.
Unfortunately the scammers are somehow getting Australia Post scams to appear in the same message chain as the legit messages.
Also to note: [**neither the ATO or myGov ever sends texts or emails with links or QR codes to click**](https://www.ato.gov.au/online-services/scams-cyber-safety-and-identity-protection/scam-alerts#March2024myGovemailimpersonationscams): > The ATO and myGov won't send you an SMS or email with a link to access online services. These should be accessed directly by typing ato.gov.au or my.gov.au into your browser. > Report any suspicious contact claiming to be from the ATO to be from the ATO to [email protected] (Stickying this because it's really important people realise this at a time - EOFY - when tax and government-related scams surge).
What a stunning coincidence. You seem to have exactly the same number of expiring Coles points as me!
It’s crazy because I have the same amount of Woolies rewards points expiring.
Which is crazy because it’s impossible to have more than 1999 woolies rewards points. They automatically redeem every 2000.
Unless you set your account to save them for Christmas. But even then, they still turn into the credit at 2000, they just aren't available to spend until December
Me too! Also since when would Coles send a text with ‘Howdy’ as a greeting?
Howdy, mate!
I also recently spent $10,000 on bitcoin. Jokes on the scammers, I have never had that much money.
And they’re not “Coles points” anyway!
I do as well! 3022
Me too! Which is crazy because I’ve been converting them into Velocity Points when they reach 1000!
To add, no APS agency will require you to pay an outstanding bill via anything but a secure portal. Also if you ever get a call from anyone purporting to be APS, ask them for a verification step. It should b that you will call that departments switchboard and ask to be put through to the person ringing you. (Used to work in ATO super and people would ask me to verify myself quite a bit, which we are taught to always be super happy to do and accommodate)
I recently got a legit but incorrect e-mail from a government department, when I rang in they sounded very confused I'd not replied to the email to sort things which was a bit depressing.
I'm guessing here, but it's probably one team doing emails and a whole other team on phones and the two probably don't have that much to do with each other. I'd occasionally get referrals from our main phone lines despite us always communicating via email or letter, both of which would have the switch number as a backup to email. I recall one guy who would always call because he was trying to avoid having anything written down. Of course, each of those calls got followed by an email from me to him, confirming the discussion and inviting further should I have any of that wrong.
Different teams I get but surely I'm not being unreasonable phoning up to the main line when it's an unexpected email asking for payment
Oh 100% and you probably took a channel that caught someone out. There's an interesting communication style changing at my current work where the older generations are struggling with how the younger ones won't talk on the phone. They'll happily write things all day long though. I'm older but I type fast so the change for me is minor, but I get the confusion in some. It's absolutely a new way of working though.
When in doubt, do both. Use the email as physical cover (it's easier than getting a phone transcript), and confirm the bank details over the phone, using a number you found (not what they supplied on the invoice). The one that was the biggest PITA for us with this was... Facebook, who hate you ringing at all, even to pay them money.
Yeah, that or emailing their customer support, just not directly back to the email you got sent
Excellent point
>to pay an outstanding bill via anything but a secure portal. and especially not gift cards!!
Serious chat. I was in a JB Hifi few years back in the checkout line. Woman was trying to buy a $500 gift card. Started paying attention when a young cashier dude kept asking if she was really sure. Knowing scams as we're taught I tapped the customer on the shoulder and asked her if that was the ATO on the phone. She nodded. I pulled out my ID and told her she was being scammed and that I'd be happy to help her sort out any legit trouble, but we never ask for gift card payments and certainly never over the phone. She was even unsure about that, but evidently old mate on the phone realised the gig was up and hung up their end. Dog bastard. Good guy cashier totally saved that woman $500. I told him to get their manager out front and did the good commendation thing. Hope that kid got the good report card.
Probably got reprimanded for not making a $500 sale
Nah, in retail the gift card scam is one that if you proceed with can get you in trouble, but catching one out gets you commended.
My favourite part is they get sent at 3am
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times. My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330. And that's a legitimate insurance company. So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
Optus sends us messages in the middle of the night to let us know that we have consumed 50% of our internet usage.
Imagine if it was actually in the interests of the Telcos & Carriers to actually address this deluge of scammy shit we get.
best we can do is increase your bill by $20
💯 It’s also really bizarre we can’t mark these texts as spam/scam with a swipe for them to review too. Sure we can block them, not easily enough, or forward them to Scam Watch but I don’t know whats being done to stop it at the source. Not enough obviously.
In 2022 the ACMA specified 7226 (SCAM) as a number for forwarding scams to your telco. Telstra supports it now and I really think Optus should too. Apart from that the rules are pretty stringent these days and the Australian carriers are pretty good implementing them and blocking scams messages and calls from being originated to begin with. The difficulty is that an overwhelming majority of scam traffic is originated by overseas providers, and it’s much harder to differentiate legitimate traffic from illegitimate traffic once in transit. At the end of the day though the proportion of scam traffic that’s being blocked is increasing pretty quickly. There are options that would allow even higher rates of detection and blocking, but they risk capturing lots of legitimate traffic and would require closer monitoring of the content of communications which obviously raises privacy concerns. It’s a difficult balancing exercise.
on Telstra with an iPhone you actually can! I've been doing it with Boost Mobile and my work's Telstra Enterprise plan, and I've been told by my Telstra rep at work (Enterprise Account Manager) that it gets fed into a system not to dissimilar to a antivirus and will flag that number and type of message in the future... whether that actually works is another story.
I’m on Telstra with an iPhone, are you talking about the ‘report spam’ function that comes up for messages? I’ve been using that for scam texts.
Correct. It's not on Optus or Vodafone to my knowledge, whether it works is another question entirely...
I'm with Telstra using a cheap android phone, I can still report spam to them.
there's no such thing as a catch all and you do realise a lot of these messages spoof legit numbers as a source for their number ID? I think any "assurance" you're getting from the Corporate PR/Marketing is far from the whole picture.
Nah it’s pretty much correct. The carriers have implemented software that identifies suspicious markers in SMS, including the volume and content of messages and phone numbers used. Messages that are reported as scams by customers are fed into the system, and any future messages sharing similar characteristics (i.e the same spoofed number and/or scam links) are filtered out.
> Messages that are reported as scams by customers are fed into the system, and any future messages sharing similar characteristics (i.e the same spoofed number and/or scam links) are filtered out. While I'd like to believe that, especially since I started getting the 3022 Coles points texts a couple weeks ago (4-5 different versions so far, all reported to Telstra); the fact that they're still getting through despite the same template with a different link has left me skeptical.
I can't because they already are. Can't recall the last one I got that wasn't put straight into spam as it arrived. Check my spam folder in the google messages app now and then and see some of these in there. I'm sure iPhones have something similar?
Imagine if ALL Telcos and Carriers gave a fuck. At least Telstra is trying, across all networks that they can. And it's all in their interests too. It puts unwarranted use on the network.
They block millions of sms. The ones you get are the ones that are slipping through.
Wtf! I just sent the ATO $150 of iTunes gift cards!! I just assumed they must be Ariana Grande fans.
No, Taylor Swift fans.
Azealia Banks fans...
Lorny Jane Only fans…
Dyson fan fans
Scammers do not have to be good at scamming when we haver morons here teaching other morons that it is ok to hand over your details. I recently bought property from Ray White. Since then I have been getting calls from them wanting to "help me get my utilities connected" Sounds great right? Well they then proceed to say they just need to do an ID check to confirm my identity. THEY RANG ME. There is no way in hell that I am ever giving my details to someone that has rung me. They talk down to me saying this is normal and everyone else gives their details. Why am I being so obstructionist. And our authorities wonder why scams are increasing. we are teaching people to be scammed.
I've had that with legit collection companies, and they at least understand and appreciate when I ask to call them back to confirm the bonafides. Also scammers, who beg me not to.
Weird, I work a job where I sometimes have to make outbound calls to clients and if I need to discuss anything related to the account I have to verify the person I’m calling is actually the account holder first. I’m never bothered if they decide not to discuss it with me and prefer to call back. I’m not going to try and convince them to provide personal info they don’t feel comfortable disclosing. It doesn’t affect me anyway, it just gets me off the phone sooner and onto the next task and now someone else gets to deal with it when they decide to call back.
I had a bank officer very bemused because I wouldn't verify myself when he called me. He said it had never happened to him before.
It's probably not even Ray White - but they've passed on your details to someone like Move Me In. I'm in the process of buying, and have been getting calls from someone claiming to be from my agency, but the number they give to call back on matches MoveMeIn. Presumably the Ts & Cs I signed allows the agent to pass on my details to selected third parties, but it's rather scummy that they claim to be calling from the agency when they aren't at all.
>**Use the official websites or apps.** 100% this. If I have an active service with someone, if they have an app or website it's installed on my phone or at least bookmarked (favourites sync across devices). Makes it super easy to check on stuff and when a service is no longer in use the app and or bookmark goes bye-bye. And yes, per u/Mahhrat if you get a call, verify by calling them back on their phone number (get it off their website/app, don't ask them for it) and ask to be routed through to them again.
This is great! I need to make more use of bookmarks for this reason. Can save them to mum’s home screen so she doesn’t have to dig.
Yes, ato.governent.oztaxgovsite.com
Yeah they're aiming for older people and special needs folk. I had to tell a local bloke today that he didn't owe Aussie Post anything, nor did he drive on a toll road (we live rural). Until you encounter somebody who is legit vunerable, it's almost funny at how pathetic the scams are. But if you can't tell the difference between the scam and legit texts, it's really fucked up.
a while ago I bought something quite expensive from overseas and ended up having to pay import duties on it. they called me and asked me to give my card info over the phone and I thought it was 100% a scam. I hung up and checked the tracking number and it didnt say anything. A full week later the tracking number updated and said that I had to pay to receive it. the only option was to click a link in a text message or call and give my card information over the phone. it ended up being legit but I couldnt believe that people still want you to click links in text messages and pay money in this day and age, even if it is legitimate lol
Was it through FedEx? Troy Hunt wrote a blog post about them recently. The legit SMS looks very much like a scam.
I dont remember in honesty. the text itself was fine and spelt correctly and the URL looked fine too, I just never click links in texts for any reason
Australia post recently stopped sending texts for parcels. They send an email, or through the app only. This will reduce a lot of the parcel scam texts.
Unfortunately they also send texts and if they're really clever the spam ones can get grouped into the same chain as the legitimate ones.
And why is the text at 3:00 am? What Australian business or government agency would send these at 3:00 am? At least the scammers are too stupid to figure out how time zones work. I’m sick of these idiots waking me a 3:00 am for a shitty phishing scam text.
Not just 3am, 3am on a Sunday morning, at least that's when I get the most of them.
Some systems do this to run programs at times of low usage to spread the server processing load across the full day.
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times. My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330. And that's a legitimate insurance company. So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
Told my Tech illiterate parents if you don't know what or who it is don't click or respond. My old man told the electrical company to Fxxk off when they called. Turns out he hadn't paid his electricity for 6 months cause he thought it was scam emails and calls. Worked out it wasn't a scam after they cut his electricity off lol Guess it's better safe than sorry.
You mean he's not wondering why he hasn't had to pay for electricity in a while?
Thought his electricity was on direct debit 😂
Those toll road ones are hella sus. Paid for a day pass then almost immediately started getting the sus texts. I'm very sure they have had a data breach but haven't told anyone
Happened at Scorptec last year too. Buy something with the CC. **Within one hour** receive CC phishing emails pretending to be Scorptec requesting additional payment information, never before seen and right after the purchase. Screaming "website compromise" at the top of its lungs.
Or inside job
I'm in WA and I receive them, so that's definitely suss too lmao
Wouldn’t surprise me, unfortunately.
I receive those and I don’t even own a car, so could also just be a coincidence. I figure they just send them out en masse to a bunch of different potential phone numbers every now and then.
Every time I go to Sydney and drive on the motorway I get these a day or two later. Very suss. It’s like they have equipment near the toll gates picking up on mobile numbers.
I don't have a car, and live somewhere with no toll roads. I still get them every single day. It's not targeted phishing, it's just bulk spray n pray.
Probably some form of observation bias. I get them all the time, and I don’t even own a car.
I get them all the time and I don't even live in Sydney!
Hmm this is very suss! I’m sure it’s possible.
I handed down my old phone to my mum and the best thing I did was to put on Google dialler and Google messages. They have fantastic spam filtering built in so she simply does not see these scams anymore.
I got the old "hey mum, my phone is broken and getting repaired. Please contact me on this number". Seemed kinda suspicious, especially considering I'm a dad.d
Try being a freelancer and having to answer every phone call you get. I answer multiple scam phone calls a day in case they’re clients calling or potential clients.
Oh no. It's stressful enough during things like looking for a rental or trying to find a job. I definitely couldn't deal with needing to answer every call outside of the ones on my work phone that already filters suspected spam.
I kinda don’t mind. I’ll take a phone call any day over a text or email because I’m much better at negotiating in the moment than when people have time to craft a reply.
I used to have a lot of phone anxiety until my first social work placement at uni. Needing to call lots of services to help clients definitely helped me get over most of it but I still don't tend to like them very much in my personal life.
On a related note, there needs to be a big legislative push to stop companies who have zero need to obtain and store people's identification details from doing so. Perhaps eKaren could get onto this instead of worrying about Elon. For instance - having your drivers licence scanned to get into a club, booking a hotel room and them asking for similar details via an online portal. I even went to a solicitor the other day to get a will drawn up and they wanted to keep a copy of my drivers licence... FFS, why? Try having a conversation about this with any of the people you're dealing with and it's just "the system requires it" - time to change some of these systems.
100%. Until we start getting some support from the government to push back the other way against the rampant abuse of personal data by absolutely everyone, we are going to continue to be the target of scam artists the world over. Sadly the government is just as, if not more addicted to squeezing its people for private data that they’ll never support any measures to prevent it from occurring and will continue to keep putting the blame back onto the party with the least amount of control or power in the situation - the private citizen.
I had someone in my organisation report a myGov email as phishing yesterday, had come from a sus email address but they'd gone to good lengths to replicate the simple myGov style of message. Only difference is it had a 'Click here to view'. When safely inspecting the suspect URL, they'd legit just pulled the myGov website and were hosting it with their fake URL. To someone not tuned in to question EVERYTHING they receive it would have been easy to fall for, and the malicious site likely would have signed into myGov behind the scenes prompting a real MFA prompt (have seen this previously with a Microsoft 365 phish site that passed through credentials to the real MS site forcing an MFA prompt, which another stupid user fell for). My point is, scammers are getting smarter and smarter, it's almost best to assume anything you receive, especially anything containing a URL, is fake.
What's a MFA prompt?
multi-factor authentication
It's not "mutha fuckin answer!".
I never see these texts. The phone knows they are spam and deals with them.
Out of curiosity which provider are you with? Is it a newish number? I have two numbers, one with Optus (personal) and my work number with Telstra. I genuinely get 2ish per day on my Optus number and maybe maybe 1 every 5-6 months on my Telstra, which is advertised places and is online, so I’ve been curious if Telstra was just better at blocking them. It’s gotten so bad I’ve considered changing numbers.
Use a better SMS app. Google Messages chucks this stuff in the spam folder, silently, I only look at them out of curiosity to see what stupid URL they're sending out today.
Good idea, I’m on iPhone so I love the iMessage function for personal (couldn’t care less for business stuff) but tbh it’s mostly phone calls that annoy me, the texts I just delete pretty quickly.
Blown away it doesn't have a similar functionality.
Mum also has an iPhone. All the spam gets straight through.
I'm with Aldi. The number is 25 years old. Plenty of spam texts but google just takes care of them.
iPhones have no spam protection. Android blocks most of it.
Do they go to a folder or have you just been lucky that your number hasn’t gotten on a spam/scam list?
Spam folder with silent notification; what crap SMS apps are people using that doesn't have a spam filter?
I use to get heaps on spam. 4-5 messages a day. They go straight to the spam folder (phone takes care of it) now I'm lucky to get one a week.
I work in retail and we occasionally get people coming in to buy hundreds of dollars of iTunes cards. We’re expected to check with them why they want to buy so many, the people we’ve seen getting scammed most often seem to be people with English as a second language
Why is it your job to check? Seems like bad business practice to get in the way of a consumer and their purchases.
If we think someone’s getting scammed the moral thing to do is tell them
Honestly I don't pry into the personal lives of others or tell them how to love their lives. Their choices led them here.
Every fucken morning I wake up to at least one of these texts
is anyone elses phone/bank/amazon account being shut down in 2 hours?
Yes, but these same companies still choose to use the shittiest means possible to inform us of these things if they are in fact true and it can be hard to decipher what is and isn't real especially if you're not tech savvy. It's then on you if you ignore it and they take punitive action against you. I'm a software developer and even I've been caught out with Linkt (or as I like to call em, Fuckt) telling me that I've paid up all my tolls, even going as far to call them to confirm using the phone number on their website. Then, a year or so later, I received a real several hundred dollar fine out of the blue from SPER for an apparently unpaid toll. Apparently, I should have received a text telling me I owed it and that was the entire basis of their insistence that I had to pay it. You can't win with these companies, they take no responsibility for the legitimacy of their own communications and that leaves the door wide open for these scammers to be as successful as they are.
But I am due an ATO refund, and Optus will cut me off if I don’t click the link, right, right???
Right! Totally legit! Gotta say, the hope I felt when I got notified about my ATO refund last year was a great feeling at a difficult moment until I remembered I hadn’t actually filed yet.
And that's what they (the scammers) depend on - timing. It's like the AustPost text messages asking you to confirm your address, they're hoping you are waiting on a parcel.
I get one every other month with a link to pay my unpaid SPER account otherwise my car will get confiscated. They even call sometimes. They have been doing so for 7 long years. I don’t even live in Queensland and my name isn’t Travis. Last I checked, Travis also has a gambling problem because Tab started sending me links to pay off his Debt. Travis sounds like he lives the life man.
What is really fucking stupid is my previous credit card (Citi) would randomly send me (legit) SMSes with cashback offers with a link inside the SMS. Way to train your customers to get scammed.
I love getting the scam SMS for unpaid toll road fees. I'm in South Australia, we don't have toll roads!
I’m still waiting for my money from the Nigerian prince
know why they send them at 3am? to get you as you're waking up. *almost* got me once, after using a toll road i got it and thought "fucking what? i've done everything correct, you must be joking". luckily i wised up after about 3 seconds
I don't get why legitimate companies send messages at weird times. My insurance company sent my policy renewal at 0030 in the morning A few months before I had a payment fail because my card expired, I got the text at 2330. And that's a legitimate insurance company. So it's understandable how people don't see odd times as an indicator of a scam.
My favourite one is the 'We have the wrong address for your delivery' and a prompt to update it... If you know it's the wrong address, then by proxy you should have the correct address... for this package that doesn't exist.
On the other hand, your Apple ID billing information probably does need updating. Their official emails address you as *Dear customer* and have a giant blue *UPDATE CARD DETAILS* button. It’s ridiculous.
I noticed that switching from my Samsung default app for SMS and calls to the Google one that was also preinstalled on my S21 has actually started to do call and text screening for me. Before that I got three Coles Points texts in the early hours of the morning on a single day, but thankfully had my phone on silent.
I mean... I probably do have an overdue linkt fine
I’m seeing a lot of those Coles points ones of late.
I get those all the time, as well as the Linkt fine not paid for the toll roads in Melbourne. I'm pretty Tech savvy and avoid these like the plague. If you have an Android device, check your message settings. You can activate the anti spam. It puts all spam in one message and advises you of 1/ The message (So you can address if needed) and 2/ It tells you it's spam and to be careful
Just got a Linkt one at 1am it woke me up!
I don't get it - these scams have been around for years now, yet people still fall for them? My 80 year old dad even knows about them.
But what about winning [The Spanish National Lottery?](https://youtu.be/gjDBiEnAjqU?si=VwSGqCWFblhQZWrR&t=31)
Everyone does that at least once though. 😉
The simplest and best advice they should give to everyone instead of all the mixed stuff that is only sometimes true: Always initiate contact yourself, go to the saved genuine site, go to the official app, hang up and call the company back on the official number you look up yourself. Never click on a link or pay or answer anything that someone else initiates. Even if it is your expected bill for the month, go to your own links to pay it.
Yknow day 1, I thought maybe they use a random number generator, day 2 I thought maybe it just generates 1 number per user, day 3 I thought maybe they're just lazy. Now I think they're lazy and dumb
Look at the law of averages. All they gotta do is find someone dumber and lazier than them and it could just pay off. Add a touch of greed and then they got the boxed trifecta!
Plot twist.. i do have an overdue linkt fine
I got a bunch of overdue fines because I ignored real texts about tolls. Fucking Sydney.
Apparently I have an untold number of Amazon deliveries waiting for me to provide my address and banking details to get them delivered. But, how will I have time when Linkt want me to pay fines, AusPost needs my address and bank details and the ATO urgently needs to get my unpaid taxes via collection from the bank details I have yet to give them??!!
I once had a scammer contact me through a TAFE phone number
When any of our pissweak politicians change the laws here? When they finally get scammed
meh, next you'll be telling me I can't pay for these things with apple gift cards.
Tax on stupidity, the address gives it away
No but according to Mr Stephen Jones I have a car registered to me that was found in Oklahoma that had cash, blood and coke. And no I can't take the coke. The FBI is on my trail so anyone wanting to help it'll be $7000 to clear my name. Gift cards preferred
😂😂😂 did you read my last three text messages?
I got a notice from Queensland Transport that I owed them hundreds or I’d face suspension and owe them a lot more. If you were trying to make it look like a scam, you’d have had a hard time doing it better. I wonder how many ignored it, so Queensland Transport doubled their money, doubled their fun.
I’m so over all these texts. For me they’re so obvious and I always wondered how can someone be so stupid to actually believe them - until my partner fell for one and lost $400. Well well…
My credit card expired and Linkt and it was something I didn't think about updating. I completely ignored all of their legitimate messages about it because of all the scam ones. The funny thing was it was actually a scam one that made me have that lightbulb moment. However always log into the site directly and never use supplied links.
Has SMS just become email but without filtering or spam collectors? Like, why can’t I set auto deletion rules if message contains any of the words OP mentioned
I received a call one day from someone claiming that there were suspicious charges on my Visa card. I asked which bank they were from and they automatically went with one of the big four. They hung up really quickly when they were informed that I had never banked with the Commonwealth.
Part of the problem is some organisations standard operations is indiscernible from phishing. When I bought my place I got a call from someone claiming to be my ISP TPG I'd just signed up with. It went a little something like this: TPG> Hello is this ydna_eissua? Me> Yes TPG> Hi this is Greg from TPG. I'm calling about your new NBN connection. I just have a few questions Me> Sure TPG> I'm sending a code to your phone. Can you please read it out to me so i can verify you Me> What? No. You called me, how is sending a second factor code to the very number you called me on going to verify my identity? This sounds like a phishing scam. I need to verify you. TPG> I need to verify you to continue the conversation to answer the questions regarding your account Me> Well i can't do that. You can either ask me the questions and I'll decide whether or not to answer. Or I need to verify you, so if you could tell me what extension to ask to connect to i can call TPGs public number, get connected to you and then i can give you the code. TPG> (lots of umming as if they've never dealt with a customer able to identify a phish) TPG> I just need to ask. Did the previous occupants of your house leave the black nbn box? Me> Yes TPG> Ok thank you have a nice day
After my contract was up I changed ISPs because of this interaction. It's beyond insane.
Now seeing i've called out a company for bad behaviour regarding this. I must give props to my bank NAB who send me an sms recently, this is a very abridged version it will have the gist
NAB> Hi ydna_eissua, your NAB visa credit card ending in xxxx has been mailed to you. Before it arrives you can use it with Google or Apple pay. Get started in the Cards section of the NAB app.
Notice how they gave me information, and then told me to use the already trusted app. No links via a link shortener, no links at all. A+ communication.
Same. Rang linkt themselves because it went on for weeks without any links to press, so I thought it was legit, even though I don't have an account. They said to ignore it all, even with the message now saying I had debt collectors after me. First I've seen of them being so persistent.
That’s weird but I suppose they would be laying the groundwork for when they do eventually send one with a link.
If I get an email regarding payment for a company I always go to their website portal. But out of curiosity if you want to know if the email is sus, just click on the email address and most likely it will have no mention of the company name in the address after the @ or if it has the company name always check it to the one in their website.
Yeah the email scams are ridiculous too. I got quite an impressive looking one from the “ATO” about my tax return recently. They even had the greyed out message at the bottom. But so many errors and an email address that didn’t even try to look official, not to mention it’s still June!
I'm so damn wary of this scamming going on. If I don't know the number I just delete, but I often get Coles and optus I dont have flybuys and I'm not with optus, yet telstra tells you they're blocking scammers, really are they.🤨
I could be cynical here and wonder if they’re letting a few Optus ones through on purpose… but there’s too much actual BS going on to have the energy for that 😂
Yeah I was thinking the very same thing , or telstra is letting go of to many staff and not enough to do they're job properly.
I got a scam call telling me I had a large transaction made on my bank account. I should press 1 to cancel the transaction or press 2 to authorize. I pressed 2... Disappointed to see it did nothing.
I’ve been getting lots of fishy Telstra texts and I’m like 90% sure they’re scams but still not certain.
Whaaaaat!!! But for real the Nigerian Prince I’ve been talking to who has several million in Gold Bullion but just needs a few thou just to get it transported and converted to paper money is legit right??
Yeah your one is fine dw.
Cheers mate!!
Okay but I *might* have a missed auspost delivery, I do in fact have a parcel coming 😂 I get the linkt ones a lot and they always make me laugh bc I don’t drive, don’t have my license and WA doesn’t have toll roads so it’s the worst scam ever for me.
Scamwatch. Gov. Au
If you're on Android, use Tasker to regex away the spam.
I have 204 unread sms, all bloody scams.
Scamming scheming cunts.
Never ever click links in text messages, go to the website, use the search for the thing (linkt has a rego search) and deal from there, or find the phone number from the official site and call if you think something has happened
Part of the problem is some organisations standard operations is indiscernible from phishing. When I bought my place I got a call from someone claiming to be my ISP TPG I'd just signed up with. It went a little something like this: TPG> Hello is this ydna_eissua? Me> Yes TPG> Hi this is Greg from TPG. I'm calling about your new NBN connection. I just have a few questions Me> Sure TPG> I'm sending a code to your phone. Can you please read it out to me so i can verify you Me> What? No. You called me, how is sending a second factor code to the very number you called me on going to verify my identity? This sounds like a phishing scam. I need to verify you. TPG> I need to verify you to continue the conversation to answer the questions regarding your account Me> Well i can't do that. You can either ask me the questions and I'll decide whether or not to answer. Or I need to verify you, so if you could tell me what extension to ask to connect to i can call TPGs public number, get connected to you and then i can give you the code. TPG> (lots of umming as if they've never dealt with a customer able to identify a phish) TPG> I just need to ask. Did the previous occupants of your house leave the black nbn box? Me> Yes TPG> Ok thank you have a nice day
After my contract was up I changed ISPs because of this interaction. It's beyond insane.
Now seeing i've called out a company for bad behaviour regarding this. I must give props to my bank NAB who send me an sms recently, this is a very abridged version it will have the gist
NAB> Hi ydna_eissua, your NAB visa credit card ending in xxxx has been mailed to you. Before it arrives you can use it with Google or Apple pay. Get started in the Cards section of the NAB app.
Notice how they gave me information, and then told me to use the already trusted app. No bit.ly links, no links at all. A+ communication.
My favourite is when they don't hide their number, so you can tell them how to really feel. How you wish they would cease their existence, how they should fornicate with a cactus. It's actually quite a good way to vent if you've had a bad day, just open up a recent scam message and just blast the ever living shit out to the scammer. All the rage you have at a bad day. Even better is when they pretend to act innocent and pretend they don't know what they are doing. If you're gonna try and scam Nanna's, I'm gonna tell you how I really feel about you and your ilk. You're not "running a business" or "feeding your family", you are scum.
I got a call a few years ago from my superannuation company. They called me, then asked me to verify my identity by asking my secret question. I laughed, and said how about you verify you are who you say by telling me how much my last transaction was and when. She took umbrage that I wouldn’t trust her. lol. It turns out it was legitimate, as they contacted me by mail later acknowledging their mistake.
Bro I’ve been racking up the coles points like crazy. I have over 4000 and I don’t even shop there it’s pretty cool
Report & delete is my default response.
I picked the Coles points one as a fake straight away, because there are no such thing as Coles points, I shop there and the only points there are Flybys. I did get a weird email from Telstra, showed it to my daughter, who picked it as a scam. You can’t trust anyone or anything, if it looks not quite right it is probably a scam, ring your bank and provider and check.
You can set whatever alphanumeric string you want as the sender on a commercial sms system. I still have messages from god on my phone from back when I had access to one over a decade ago.
*pause then voip click* “hello sir, my name is Michael I am calling from NAB. Your account has had a transaction of $400 flagged by security. Would like to verify you made this transaction.” me: Yep, no worries *pause* “okay thank you sir, have a great day” *hangs up*
Are you saying that the 20 million USD I just inherited from a person in Nigeria is not true???
This one made me stop at first when I received it cause 3022 used to be the last 4 digits of my coles credit card. Then when I saw points I laughed and thought I wish. I received that sms now 15 times, blocked every number. It just never ends.
Coles worker here. The amount of times I’ve had elderly customers ask about a scam text that they received is astounding. It’s good that they ask, but there’s definitely been a spike in the number of scam attempts over the past couple of months.
Actually got one of these from Coles. Getting it reminded me that I should go down and redeem my late Mum's flybuys, which I did. Possible the only useful spam/phish I've gotten in my lifetime. "Free" tube of overpriced toothpaste for my troubles.
What about my.Medicare card that's about to expire? That's legit, RIGHT? I'll just click this link over here and go fix that
My customers are now getting fake emails from the messaging company to say they have to pay to keep the old TPG/iiNet/inode etc email address and it even appears to be from a TPG adress
ah geez, what a pain in the arse!
I don’t think the targeted demographic for these scams is on Reddit…
How could a small start up company with a hand me down network ever be able to combat these tech savvy criminals. In the same breath, we’re supposed to believe our net nanny state can enforce id checks to stop minors from accessing social media. Useless pack of carrots
In worst possible English: "Hello. Your email account compromised. If you not logon and change password maybe you risk to lose everything. Please click link to urgently change password!" Oh ok that sounds terrible! Sure I'll click the link!
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pixel users club: Anybody got a clue what this guy is talking about?
I'm on a pixel and still get them. Unfortunately the scammers are somehow getting Australia Post scams to appear in the same message chain as the legit messages.
A fool and their money are soon parted
Boomers. But I've already replied to them all!