What is happening

With everybody moving over to digital platforms, there has been a rise in criminals taking advantage of people through online crime.

The Australia Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), which monitors security threats to individuals, businesses and government departments around COVID-19 has found that on average, 4,400 cybercrime reports a month, with an estimate of 95 new reports where people have lost money or personal information to COVID-19 themed online scams in the past few weeks alone.

This blog post explains what a cyber crime is, and provides organisations and services who support young people practical tips on how you can avoid it.

What is Cybercrime

Like most scams they are looking for private information to bypass security in order to access systems that are used for work, bank account details or anything else that may disrupt your every day living or working arrangements.

Tips to know what is a scam

  • there are a number of spelling mistakes in the body of the content
  • the email address doesn’t match the companies normal address, for example, accounts@vic.org.au instead of finance@yacvic.org.au
  • there are logos missing or changed in some way
  • requests for banking or private details (no one should be asking for your username, password or other confidential details)
  • links to websites that have unusual URLs (do not click it)

Sometimes it can be hard to spot these tells

If you are receiving an email it is important to look carefully if being asked to do something like provide private Information or open attachments from someone unexpected.

If you are receiving a SMS from ‘the government’ or company, please do not open the link from the message. If you believe that there may be a reason behind receiving the SMS, it is better to open up your computer and go from the official website to see if it is real or call an official number from a trusted source.

If you receive a phone call from somewhere it is best to hang up and request to call them back. Some banks will call you directly and will understand if you want to hang up and return the phone call. It is always best to then search for the phone number instead of taking a phone number they give you.

The most important thing to remember is to second guess anyone who is asking for your personal details or details of the business.

What do I do if I receive a scam?

Remember to not forward it on to anyone else, it is better to take a screen shot. You will need to notify the person whose identity is being used and anyone else in the company that need to be aware of receiving the information.

If you need to report the matter outside of the business it is best to report it to ACSC (www.cyber.gov.au/report).

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