In the last 2 years alone, Australian's have lost almost a billion dollars to scams and annual losses have tripled since 2020.
Scammers know we all sign up for marketing emails or text messages and search for good deals and discounts on products, and they will copy real companies.
Scams work because they catch us off-guard with messages or websites that look like the real thing. In an average day, we interact with lots of email, social media posts, ads and websites. It's not possible to examine each single one in detail. However, there are a few clues that can help you know when to take a closer look at a message or ad to check if it's a scam before you click on the link:
- Large established companies employ people to write, and quality check their marketing materials and websites. While the occasional typo may slip through, you should never see a message that has spelling or grammar errors, is badly formatted, or has out of date images or logos.
- Customer focused companies know how important you are, so when they contact you, they will use your name, rather than refer to you as - 'Dear Customer'. Importantly though, just because a message does use your name, that doesn't mean it is real.
- Real businesses and agencies won't threaten customers, or insist they take an action immediately to avoid serious consequences.
Below you can read about different types of scams, with examples of the types of warning signs to help you know when to take a closer look.