Scammers are using the federal budget to target financially stressed Australians, with a wave of deceitful texts prompting a warning from Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones.
In the days before Tuesday budget, and since, scammers have seized on the chance to try to dupe money out of struggling Australians.
A scam text doing the rounds across the country imitates the government’s services portal. It reads: “myGov: Eligible individuals can receive a one-time payment of $750 to help with their living expenses.”
The message includes a link that looks like it directs to the myGov website. But closer inspection reveals it’s a fake.
The surge prompted a warning from Mr Jones on Tuesday night.
“I’m hearing that scam texts like this are being sent tonight – don’t click on any links in texts messages,” he tweeted.
“Any message from myGov will be in your myGov inbox.”
Tweet from @StephenJonesMP
It is not the first time scammers have tried their luck targeting people keen to learn the details of the federal budget. But there are fresh concerns that some Australians might be particularly vulnerable as they deal with cost-of-living pressures.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said text messages were the leading contact method for scams last year, making up a third of all reports.
Notifications about about fake texts to Scamwatch increased almost 19 per cent to just under 80,000 in total. Yet three in 10 victims do not report scams.
The most common category of scam reported to Scamwatch is phishing – tricking victims into giving out personal information such as bank accounts, passwords, credit cards or super.
There was an almost five-fold jump in financial loss attributed to phishing, and most were coordinated by texts.
Scamwatch took aim at the myGov texts earlier this year, when it tweeted: “Never access myGov by clicking a hyperlink.”
“Never share your myGov login details with anyone.”
Tweet from @Scamwatch_gov
Ironically, Tuesday’s federal budget included funding for a register for text scams.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said almost half the nation had been deceived by or exposed to a dodgy text message in the past year. An estimated $3.1 billion had been lost.
The new registry will support telcos in preventing scammers imitating key industry or government brand names such as myGov or toll operator Linkt.
“We will all reap the practical benefits that will be delivered by the implementation of the SMS sender ID Registry,” Ms Rowland said.
“It is a massive issue and requires a whole-of-industry and a whole-of-government approach.”
The Australian Communications and Media Authority will receive $10 million over four years to launch and maintain the facility.
It will complement rules registered by the ACMA last July for telecommunications companies that blocked more than 90 million scam texts over the following six months.
An industry-wide model will be phased in over 12 months subject to rule making, industry readiness and security arrangements.
Communications Alliance head John Stanton welcomed the crackdown on SMS-based fraud and urged the government to continue consulting with the sector to get the complex mechanism right.
“Many alliance members would prefer that the registry ultimately operate under a mandatory, rather than voluntary, framework,” he said.
The boss of the telecommunications industry body said telcos were already blocking text scams under an enforceable industry code and a well-executed registry would bolster their defence against fraudsters.
-with AAP
