[Reet]

I have recently received two emails which are obviously scams, both from Te:l:s:t:r:a :S;e:r:v:i:ce: I mean, would anyone believe that to be from Telstra to start with? The next thing they each referred to two separate accounts asking that I update my payment method Account number. These scammers are getting careless as I would not believe these to be genuine just by looking at the way the name is spelt out and the fact that they have quoted two accounts, neither of which is mine!

 

[deni67]

Paypal and Facebook (Meta) users are subject to ongoing cyber attacks. One type is “problems with your account”, requiring you to “confirm” your details because of (unspecified) actions contrary to the organization’s policy. Another type is that you have made a purchase (that you do not recognize) and funds will be taken out of your account, or that you need to authorize payment. Another type is that your account is going to be suspended for a breach of some kind (unspecified) and you need to click the link to fix the problem. You may have received some of these contacts. All of these emails or texts are attempts to steal your financial and personal details.

If you see any of these, delete them. There are no problems with your account, you do not need to be concerned about purchases you have not instigated and your account is not about to be suspended. These despicable scammers trade on fear. They try to make out the matter needs your urgent response, getting you to act without thinking it through. If in doubt, check your account through Paypal or Facebook. Reassure yourself that there is nothing you need to do about your account.

In particular, be aware that if you get any emails or texts from the Australian Taxation Office asking you to click on a link, such as to confirm your tax details or expedite your refund, it’s a fake. Delete it. The ATO may send you an email asking you to call them about a matter, but that email will contain identifying information to confirm it is genuine. In that case, call them on their advertized number. They will never, never, never ask you to click on a link. Be safe. Use that delete button!

That's not totally true about Facebook. I recently had two of my accounts completely blocked by them then deleted, the emails were real, I went into Facebook from a Google search, I didn't click on any links in the email, I tried to log into my account and it had been locked for 180 days, then it was closed.
I eventually managed to make a new account but I had lost all of my precious photos of family and friends, not to mention my friends list as i'm finding it hard to remember them all.
I did have all of my photos saved on an external drive but that crashed months before any of this happened.
So they are not all hoaxes/scams, myself and another friend are living proof!

 

[Jan A]

Interesting about the Facebook email being real! Just another bit of confusion to add the to the mix. No wonder people get rattled by all this. It gets to the point where we cannot tell what is real and what is not.

 

[saundy]

A strong piece of advice as soon as your suspect something is wrong have the bank etc lock your accounts.
Once you have done this nobody can access your accounts, it has a down side your access to online banking is gone, I have had my account locked permanently by my bank after a hackers tried unsuccessful to gain access to my accounts the bank immediately locked my accounts and after several attempts they are locked permanently.
I have access to the teller machine use it at the supermarket's etc but I don't have online banking which I consider a small price to pay to stop hackers and scammers.
Anyone who is having trouble with hackers or scammers this will stop them 100%

I have a scammer doing his best to access my account he contacted me via email and phone says I am owed money that I had to pay x amount to receive the funds "scammer" so I said said put the money in my account and I will pay you that is the way everything goes payment after the service is delivered, I received several emails and phone calls over a few months each time I ignored phone calls and emails trying to get money from me he says " we have to talk etc etc" , I don't reply to anything if I don't requested the phone number I don't answer it I will not allow this piece of scum gain access to anything of mine all he needs is a very short period of time online phone these lowlifes can access everything on your device.

Be wearying of any kind of phone calls/ email that you don't know the origin of either delete them if they don't look ligaments or contact where they supposed to original came from.

A short email or phone call is all that you have to do to help prevent a scammer.

 

[Rone]

An email I received yesterday.

New Income Tax Available

From: myGov<[email protected]>

You have a new message in your myGov Inbox.

Read Message

Regards, myGov team

Do not reply to this email.

The internet domain .id is Indonesia!

yes ive had the same 5 times now ... i think they cant remember who they sent these too ..tosspots

Another scam is coming our way. The email is seemingly from “noreply.gov.au”. The subject is “Immediate update required: 2025 Tax Assessment Hold”. The actual sender’s email address shown on the email itself is definitely not a government one.

This is a scam! Do not open it! Do not reply to it! Do not panic! The heading suggests your tax assessment (and therefore your refund) is on hold. This is complete rubbish. The Australian Taxation Office does not communicate with people in this way. If there is an issue with your tax return, you will be notified by letter containing all your details, including your Tax File Number. Whatever it is, if it doesn’t have your name, address and TFN and/or ABN it is not from the ATO.

These emails have no identifying details, showing they have no clue who is receiving it. These scammers have obtained bulk email addresses and send out this garbage to everyone, hoping they will frighten someone into contacting them and revealing their banking details. Be smart! Use that Delete button!

yes had this one a few times ..mine shows as no sender address so i bin it

 

[Tigers]

Yes, I received something similar years ago. They are literally fishing by sending these to thousands or more, hoping for a bite. Mongrels!

I'd love to be able to send a virus to them that paid them back many times.

I too would LOVE to send them their OWN virus back. most ..if not ALL of these viruses, pretty much come from russia or India. remember seeing a program a few yrs, ago, where this FORMER Aust, hacker, stated that an area in India called, (i think area 55 had one floor of hackers. and the aurthorities knew but did NOTHING about them.??

 

[Ruby Dragon]

I was scammed last year via the Optus data breech in 2022. Optus never contacted me. The first I knew about it was via a phone call from a Detective who confirmed it. Of course I phoned the Police to check his authenticity. I received witness statements to sign and had 2 names revealed of those scammers. BUT that was only the first group of scammers. There ended up being 4 groups carrying out scams using my ID. My credit rating plummeted due to loans I never owned as there were no payments made. 10k from mortgage redraw was made after Heritage Bank allowed a caller to change all my login details, but as it was a weekend and I was contacting all my financial institutions - it was stopped as was due for release on the Monday. Next was CBA where they transferred my funds into my main account then attempted a PayID tfr (1hr 45 mins onto the CBA fraud line was unanswered)!!!! Multiple loan applications had been made by the scammers. One tried to get mortgage broker to do a quick cash tfr. Another contacted my daughter as her details were on my Optus account and he wanted my maiden name. One name I searched worked at a well know company that does your data searches when buying a property!!! Unbelievable. I bought new drivers license to stop online accounts being opened. Weeks later I received multiple debit cards in the mail from a bank Ive never heard of and then Heritage range saying they are trying again. All devices now have layers of protection.

I was caught up in the Latitude data breach, not as bad as yours but still significant stealing of funds and opening up debit cards in my name. I feel for you, it was so frustrating trying to fix everything when the thieves had control of both my email address and phone number.

 

[Mikeyboy2012]

I too would LOVE to send them their OWN virus back. most ..if not ALL of these viruses, pretty much come from russia or India. remember seeing a program a few yrs, ago, where this FORMER Aust, hacker, stated that an area in India called, (i think area 55 had one floor of hackers. and the aurthorities knew but did NOTHING about them.??

There must be a tax or payment system back to the government or officials. Corruption on top of insidious, illegal activities.

 

[deni67]

A strong piece of advice as soon as your suspect something is wrong have the bank etc lock your accounts.
Once you have done this nobody can access your accounts, it has a down side your access to online banking is gone, I have had my account locked permanently by my bank after a hackers tried unsuccessful to gain access to my accounts the bank immediately locked my accounts and after several attempts they are locked permanently.
I have access to the teller machine use it at the supermarket's etc but I don't have online banking which I consider a small price to pay to stop hackers and scammers.
Anyone who is having trouble with hackers or scammers this will stop them 100%

I have a scammer doing his best to access my account he contacted me via email and phone says I am owed money that I had to pay x amount to receive the funds "scammer" so I said said put the money in my account and I will pay you that is the way everything goes payment after the service is delivered, I received several emails and phone calls over a few months each time I ignored phone calls and emails trying to get money from me he says " we have to talk etc etc" , I don't reply to anything if I don't requested the phone number I don't answer it I will not allow this piece of scum gain access to anything of mine all he needs is a very short period of time online phone these lowlifes can access everything on your device.

Be wearying of any kind of phone calls/ email that you don't know the origin of either delete them if they don't look ligaments or contact where they supposed to original came from.

A short email or phone call is all that you have to do to help prevent a scammer.

I had similar happen to me two weeks ago, my bank locked my account as well but I could still pay bills, transfer money to my partners account and had all direct debits taken out.
I also have an online account, I put most of my balance in there now, it can't be touched except by me.

 

[saundy]

That's not totally true about Facebook. I recently had two of my accounts completely blocked by them then deleted, the emails were real, I went into Facebook from a Google search, I didn't click on any links in the email, I tried to log into my account and it had been locked for 180 days, then it was closed.
I eventually managed to make a new account but I had lost all of my precious photos of family and friends, not to mention my friends list as i'm finding it hard to remember them all.
I did have all of my photos saved on an external drive but that crashed months before any of this happened.
So they are not all hoaxes/scams, myself and another friend are living proof!

I had my Facebook account blocked by them a couple of years ago, all I did was add a comment to a post that was already on Facebook, I received a message from Facebook stating that I had been blocked because of the simple comment I added to the post I objected without success, I don't spend much time on Facebook since.

 

[deni67]

I had my Facebook account blocked by them a couple of years ago, all I did was add a comment to a post that was already on Facebook, I received a message from Facebook stating that I had been blocked because of the simple comment I added to the post I objected without success, I don't spend much time on Facebook since.

Yeah it sucks, I put a post in warning people that there was one of those romance scammers in the group and poof, I was gone!

 

[Leenie]

Approx 12 months ago I received an email purported to be from the AFP advising that if I didn’t comply with ? I would be arrested and jailed. It looked .legitimate with all the insignia etc I almost thought it was real until I studied the small print At the bottom and seen it was sent from Bulgaria . I went down to our Federal members office so they could
do what was required to stop this scam. People could have been easily fooled .

 

[Veggiepatch]

Approx 12 months ago I received an email purported to be from the AFP advising that if I didn’t comply with ? I would be arrested and jailed. It looked .legitimate with all the insignia etc I almost thought it was real until I studied the small print At the bottom and seen it was sent from Bulgaria . I went down to our Federal members office so they could
do what was required to stop this scam. People could have been easily fooled .

Same here.

I posted the actual email on SDC last year. It even contained the name and dodgy signatures of two high ranking AFP officials. It had about six glaring giveaways which proved its lack of authenticity.

 

[Leenie]

These were my latest scams . Facebook Security Alert, Hi Eileen someone just logged into you Facebook account near the Sunshine Coast Q ,ona Mobile Safari on Apple IPad.If this wasn’t you we’re here to help you take some simple steps to secure your account.
If this wasn’t you , you can ignore this Email. Wondering if this email is really from us ,visit the help line to confirm. www.facebook.com/help/check-email.Sunshine Coast Mobile Safari on Apple IPad Sunday Dec29at 2-50 pm.
To improve your security we’ve enabled login alerts. We’ll continue to notify you whenever your username and password are used to login from a new browser or device .
Thanks
Facebook Security
From Meta.
There was a This wasn’t me . I got 3 within minutes on 29/12/24
Then 2 more for Brisbane a few days later. 3 /1/25
I am not on Facebook nor use a browser ,
So how do they get my information?

 

[CathyF115]

Yeah... about 12 mths ago, my Facebook and other on line social accounts were hacked. Caused me no end of grief when they then gained access to bank records ... Thankfully I picked it up before I lost everything, but it means I will not trust Facebook or other social accounts, and that limits my social contact and some local information.

 

[Riverina Rose]

I have recently received two emails which are obviously scams, both from Te:l:s:t:r:a :S;e:r:v:i:ce: I mean, would anyone believe that to be from Telstra to start with? The next thing they each referred to two separate accounts asking that I update my payment method Account number. These scammers are getting careless as I would not believe these to be genuine just by looking at the way the name is spelt out and the fact that they have quoted two accounts, neither of which is mine!

I got this one from “Telstra”

I have recently received two emails which are obviously scams, both from Te:l:s:t:r:a :S;e:r:v:i:ce: I mean, would anyone believe that to be from Telstra to start with? The next thing they each referred to two separate accounts asking that I update my payment method Account number. These scammers are getting careless as I would not believe these to be genuine just by looking at the way the name is spelt out and the fact that they have quoted two accounts, neither of which is mine!

 

[Riverina Rose]

I also received this Supposed email from Telstra…. Reason I was suspicious it was sent to my pre marriage email account.. then I noticed the hard to spot tell tales. Like .. after a sentence : after a word etc……
This is pretty serious for those unaware of those little tell tale signs.

 

[Kevin. A.]

Approx 12 months ago I received an email purported to be from the AFP advising that if I didn’t comply with ? I would be arrested and jailed. It looked .legitimate with all the insignia etc I almost thought it was real until I studied the small print At the bottom and seen it was sent from Bulgaria . I went down to our Federal members office so they could
do what was required to stop this scam. People could have been easily fooled .

I had a phone call a few years ago, from a supposed Lawer/ Scammer. The guy was trying to tell me that there was an arrest warrant out for me. If I paid him $200 in store gift cards, then he could settle the warrant. I hung up after telling the scammer what I thought of him and that he needs to get a real job, instead of trying to scam others. I submitted the phone number to "Scam Watch" and have never had another phone call from that low life.

 

[Kevin. A.]

I have recently received two emails which are obviously scams, both from Te:l:s:t:r:a :S;e:r:v:i:ce: I mean, would anyone believe that to be from Telstra to start with? The next thing they each referred to two separate accounts asking that I update my payment method Account number. These scammers are getting careless as I would not believe these to be genuine just by looking at the way the name is spelt out and the fact that they have quoted two accounts, neither of which is mine!

I think most of these emails are coming from the latest recruits from "Scam School". I am sure these people all do to the same scam courses and then just download scamming templates that they adjust to try and trick their potential victims. I wonder how much these people are paying to do these "How to scam" courses.

 

[Leenie]

My Facebook scam showed up again, today they don’t give up.