First Aid

This page gives you some immediate information. There are also pages you can print at the bottom to assist with more details or to help prepare in case of a scam. The advice on this page is general as scams keep changing. The advice is given in good faith however Computer Club cannot be held responsible for any losses experienced in a specific instance.

 

Scammers rely on urgency so always remember:

Nothing is really URGENT except getting medical treatment if you are seriously ill.

The Urgency ploy:

Scams rely on urgency so anytime you get an email, text or phone call with a requirement for URGENCY, treat it as a scam. Businesses and government departments will not have urgent payment requirements without multiple prior notices of a payment due.

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Scammers can fake the number shown on your phone to appear to be the genuine number of a business, bank or government. No matter what they say, hang up – they want to keep you talking and can be very convincing, meanwhile they are recording everything that you say.

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Hang up, then get a known correct email or phone number for the bank, Paypal, Centrelink, Services NSW or other business or government service. Ring on the known correct number to check for problems.

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Check the Scamwatch website https://www.scamwatch.gov.au for similar types of scams.

Come to Computer Club for our advice 8853 1810, if you are still unsure, but do not respond to the scam message.

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Scam Clues.

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You should never be asked to provide:

    Passwords or Security PIN

    Payments to ‘fix’ account problems

    Payments in Bitcoin, other crypto currency or giftcards

Ask at Computer Club for our advice 8853 1810, if you are unsure, but do not respond to the scam message.

But it might be a Legitimate, Email, Text or Phone Call!

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Emails are very insecure and can easily be intercepted by scammers. A legitimate email should refer to you by name and not require any payment unless it is through your normal account. An invoice might be faked so if you have doubts, check that it is also on your online account with that business. Do not click any link in an email that you are not absolutely certain about. Do not send any banking or payment information via email but especially BSB, Account details and NEVER passwords or PIN.

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A text message or SMS can be illegally inserted with previous messages from a bank, business or government.

Read the message but do not tap on any link in the message. You can check for any issues mentioned in the text using your phone app or online account for the bank, business or government mentioned in the message.

Businesses may make phone calls but usually for appointments NOT payments. Telstra, Optus, Vodaphone,NBN, Microsoft, Apple etc will NOT ring you unless you ring them first. Do not listen to anyone who calls and says they are from any of these businesses. Hang up – it is not RUDE to hang up on a criminal. If they ring back, threaten to call the police or turn off your mobile phone or leave a land line off the hook for an hour.

If you get a call from an unknown number, do not answer; let it go to voicemail.

A legitimate caller will leave a message; a scammer will not.

Some phone surveys are also scams even if they sound benign; they are collecting personal information to use on a later phone call.

Ask at Computer Club 8853 1810, for our advice if you are unsure, but do not respond to the scam message.

Technology Trauma

Scammers have many methods to cause worry about a fault in your mobile phone, tablet or computer or on your internet or Wifi. Even if your device shows a message that it has a virus or other fault, turn it off and bring it for a check at Computer Club. If the scammer or the message says don’t turn it off, ignore them, hang up and turn it off. A virus cannot cause any harm if the computer is not running!

In most cases, there is NO VIRUS; they do not know anything about your devices and they are just telling a scary story to get you to connect to their computer so they can steal your information and money.

To turn off any device, even if ‘frozen’, hold down the power button until it goes off or shows a message to tap again to turn off (usually mobile devices)

The ONLY time that you need to keep your device on is when it is updating and it will tell you when that is complete.

Ask at Computer Club for our advice if you are unsure, but do not respond to the scam message.

It seems so personal!

Sometimes personal information is stolen from a business so scammers find out some of your details that way, but there are other ways:

How do they know my number?

They don’t; they use a computer to ring millions of numbers hoping to get someone who will listen to their scam.

Unknown caller number; don’t answer. If you answered but it sounds odd; Hang up, do not listen.

How do they know my name?

They often don’t but many of us have put our name in our email like jenny.blackbird@treemail.com.

How easy is it to get your name, Jenny Blackbird from that email?

Check if your email is known by criminals; use this site to check https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Change the email; ask how at Computer Club!

How do they know my email?

They often don’t but if a friend has their email hacked, all their friends’ emails will be stolen and yours might be one of them.

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Ask at Computer Club for our advice if you are unsure, but do not respond to the scam message.

What can you do to prepare?

• Gather phone numbers in advance for critical accounts like banking so that you know the correct number to ring if you are worried about a possible scam message.

• Set up two-factor access to critical accounts like banking. This means that if your password is stolen criminals cannot get access to your money without a second piece of information like a phone code.

• Use a different password for every account so that the loss of one password does not compromise everything.

• Read Scamwatch for current information about scams so you are aware of what is possible. https://www.scamwatch.gov.au

• Check the advice from Computer Club in Friday Night Update and Bits & Bytes

• In case a scammer tries to impersonate a family member in trouble, arrange a secret word or phrase with family members in advance so you really know who it is. Never mention any family names until you really know it is a family member talking or texting.

• Practice answering the phone with ‘Hello’ only and wait for a response to make it difficult for scammers to record your voice to fool your family.

• Practice answering calls only from numbers you know and ignore the rest

• Minimise disclosure of personal information on social media to minimise scammer information sources

• Check your email is not known by criminals at Email Check

• Check any password for security at Password_Check

• Keep the Computer Club number handy for our advice 8853 1810, but do not respond to suspected scam messages

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Click on these links for helpful pages you can print:

I am worried about a scam     Scam Preparation List