If you’re shopping online or expecting a parcel delivery during the holiday season, stay vigilant. Scams are rampant this time of year and around large retail events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day sales.
Scammers impersonate well-known brands, businesses and services to steal your personal or financial information.
The ACMA is urging Australians to be extra wary of text and email messages promoting fake online stores and fake parcel delivery messages this holiday season. Get scam savvy with these tips:
Parcel delivery scams
Parcel delivery scams are one of the 5 most common SMS impersonation scams. Scammers pretend to be well-known delivery services like Amazon, Australia Post, DHL and StarTrack, and try to trick you into giving your personal or financial details.
Look out for strange links or requests that you do something in order to receive your delivery, such as arrange re-delivery of a package, update your delivery details or pay a fee to receive your parcel.
If you are not sure whether a parcel delivery text or email message is real:
- Do not click on any links as these may contain malware or may be phishing scams designed to steal your personal or financial details.
- Check the sender’s contact details from an official website or app, or via information received at the time of purchase, such as a tracking number.
Fake online stores
Make sure you know who a message is from and who you’re shopping with online. Scammers create fake websites and use ultra-low prices to exploit unsuspecting shoppers. Even during end-of-year sales, if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If you receive a text or email message with a link to an online store, check that it’s a genuine retail website by searching for independent reviews and verifying the URL.
Take action
Scammers are criminals, and they target everyone.
If you think you’ve been scammed, contact your bank immediately to stop any payments and tell your telco.
Help other Australians by reporting scams to ScamWatch. Scammers want you to hide or deny your experiences. Reporting scams and talking about them not only helps you to understand what happened but informs authorities about scammer activities so that they can make it harder for scams to occur.
The more we talk, the less power they have.
Get informed:
- ACMA’s tips for dealing with phone scams.
- Scamwatch’s advice about protecting yourself.
- IDCARE can help if your identity has been compromised or stolen. Call 1800 595 160 or visit www.idcare.org.
- Use our phone scam educational materials, which include posters in English, 10 other languages and for First Nations Australians, and graphics for social media.
The ACMA supports the government’s Fighting Scams initiative to address scams and online fraud and protect Australians from financial harm. We also support the work of the National Anti-Scam Centre, which coordinates government, law enforcement and the private sector to combat scams.