There’s a text scam doing the rounds at the moment that is proving to be very lucrative for the fraudsters behind it. So, what is it and what should you do if you accidentally click on it?
You’re rushing from work to pick up the kids, with around 12 different things you’re thinking about, when you stop the car and see you have a text. A package you ordered couldn’t be delivered and you immediately think of those shoes you bought in a New Year sale that haven’t turned up yet, so you click the link for redelivery… But, now, you’re actually well down the rabbit hole of one of the biggest scams that is doing the rounds at the moment.
Mark Broome has been working in banking fraud for 23 years, currently at ANZ. He started out in money laundering, followed by external fraud and now specialises in scams.
Online scams in particular keep Broome and his colleagues on their toes. They are clever and relentless.
“We’re still getting a lot of traditional romance scams and traditional investment scams,” he tells 9Honey.
“But I think, just by sheer volume, the community is more aware now of these kind of text messages.”
“They adapt really, really quickly and I guess they don’t have too many overheads,” Broome says of those behind the scams.
“They look for ways that they can try to convince customers and from inside the bank’s point of view, it’s really interesting just watching. It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game.
“We watch a certain way that they can try to target a customer, then within a week, they’ve put that one in the back pocket and they’ve moved on to something else.”
Broome says the most common kinds of scams at the moment are phishing text scams claiming parcel delivery details are incorrect.
“That seems to be the main one we’re seeing at the moment that’s targeting consumers,” he says.
These have been sent to customers thick and fast since the Black Friday sales in November and have continued throughout the festive season and New Year.
Consumers are mostly aware of some scams, but text scams like these ones can be easy to fall for – particularly if you’re busy or stressed.
Broome says if you do find yourself falling for one of these scams, the first thing to do is contact your bank immediately.
“It’s really important that you contact your bank because we can put extra security on your account to try to protect you,” he explains.
“We can reset passwords, we can reset all those credentials, we can stop cards, reissue them, do all those kind of things and kind of cover it off that way.”
Your bank can also “put extra controls in place” so nothing gets auto-approved.
”There’s a myriad of things that we can do to try to protect customers who want that extra layer of security,” he adds.
Aside from phishing scams are the phone calls which Broome says you should “just hang up on.”
“We’re getting the job ones that are coming through asking, ‘Do you want to pick up a bit of part-time work?'”
Broome himself will play along for a little while to try and understand how the scam works so he can protect customers.
”We see if we can get any additional information that might help us work out who’s sending them, but most of the time I just cancel them.”
Then there are the more sinister scams that see bank impersonations taking place with customers asked to move some funds.
“We saw a lot of those around this time last year,” Broome said, adding that romance scams continue as do investment scams.
Another scam he warns customers about involves purchasing items online that don’t exist, which take place on marketplace-type apps.
“I think it’s just really important to make your payments through a reputable channel,” he says. “
If you get the opportunity, make sure that you inspect the item before you commit to it as well.
“There are a lot of examples where the actual item doesn’t exist and we see customers pay money for them.”
This article was reproduced with permission from 9Honey. To read the original article, click here.
