By Brendan Rees
Victorians have been scammed out of more than $10 million already this year as identity theft rises during the coronavirus lockdown.
New Scamwatch data, released by the State Government, showed more people were being conned this year – with a loss of almost $2m in the past eight months compared to all of last year.
Speaking at the start of Scams Awareness Week (17-21 August), Minister for Consumer Affairs Melissa Horne said said being mindful of who people give their details to has never been more important, given the huge number of people stay-at-home due to coronavirus restrictions.
“Our growing use of technology gives scammers more opportunities to trick you into giving away your personal or financial information – people need to be careful and report any suspected scams to police,” Ms Horne said. “It’s appalling that anyone would use this situation to take advantage of someone, but we all need to do our part to protect our safety online.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Delia Rickard said scammers were increasingly taking advantage of the financial difficulties and uncertainty generated from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are seeing two main types of scams impersonating government departments; fake government threats and phishing scams,” she said. “Both of these scams can be quite convincing and can lead to significant financial losses or even identity theft.”
Phishing scams are attempts by scammers to trick people into giving out personal information such as their bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.
Victorians can help protect themselves against scams by not giving out their personal information to unexpected messages and emails nor open attachments or click on links in unexpected social media message or pop-up windows.
