Don’t Play Along

SUZANNE Dean from the department of Fair Trading said phone and online scams are becoming more sophisticated and talked to Scone residents last week about how to protect themselves.

At the Country Women’s Association luncheon in Scone, Ms Dean said the best advice to avoid any scam is never to give personal information or click on a link in an email.

“The main advice when they have a phone call is not to give out any personal information to anybody no matter who they say they are,” said Ms Dean.

While banks may call customers and ask for their birth date and address to verify that they are speaking to the account holder, Ms Dean’s advice is to ask what organisation they are calling from, hang up, look up the number of that organisation and then call them so that you can be sure you are speaking to a representative from the organisation.

Ms Dean also warned not to play along even when you suspect it is a scam.

“Hang up straight away, don’t become involved in a conversation, just don’t play along,” she said.

Local people gave many examples of the types of calls they receive from scammers pretending to be from the Tax department, Microsoft, banks and threats of legal action.

“Some ask if they have been in a motor vehicle accident in the last three years and one woman told me how she received such a call only a week after her husband had died in a motor vehicle accident,” said Ms Dean.

“Emails with spyware and malware can also empty your bank account, I knew of one situation where within half an hour $1,000 had been taken from someone’s account and they only took $1,000 because that is all that was in there,” she said.

“Never click on a link in an email because that is when your computer can become infected with spyware and malware and all kinds of personal information can be accessed from your computer,” she said.

“There are also scams where people are told if they don’t enter into a repayment arrangement someone will be around to arrest them within half an hour and for elderly people it can be very distressing,” she said.

“The most harmful of the scams are the romance scams, on average people can lose $100,000 and I’ve heard a case where someone lost $500,000 and another where she had leant so much money out to this person on the internet that she’d had to sell her unit,” she said.

“The other schemes are bad, but that one not only messes with your bank account it also messes with your emotions and does a lot of emotional damage to them,” Suzanne Dean said.