Scammers preying on Gold Coaster’s desperation

While the Gold Coast once suffered the reputation as a haven for dodgy dealers, now we’re considered a city of suckers.

Good one, Elon.

Logging on to Twitter early Sunday morning, I was greeted by an absurd warning from Mr Musk. Either I remove my text message-based security verification or I pay the monthly fee to join Twitter Blue. Refusal to do either will result in the loss of my account.

The only other way to protect my account is to use a two-factor authenticator generator app, which I have no idea how to operate.

So until my teenage son explains it to me, my Twitter account is essentially unsecured and vulnerable to compromise.

Elon Musk has announced Twitter users must pay to use text message-based security verification. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)

It’s a great way for Elon to get more people signing up to Twitter Blue, but not so great for the security of technically-challenged users who don’t want to pay.

Which is just what I need after a year in which my Instagram account was hacked, my credit card was hacked three times, and both my private health fund and mobile phone provider were leaked and my personal details stolen.

While it’s absolutely baffling as to why Elon Musk – who allegedly bought Twitter because he was tired of bot, scam and spam accounts – would open up the vast majority of users to such security breaches, it’s especially concerning as a Gold Coast-based user.

Because, somehow, our city has become a scammer’s paradise.

Now some would say the Gold Coast has long been considered a haven for dodgy dealers, but that’s no longer true.

Gold Coasters are increasingly becoming targets of scams.

Love him or hate him, Mayor Tom Tate has spent the past decade rebuilding and rebranding the city’s reputation.

Back in 2013 he made national news with his push to dispel the image of the Gold Coast as a haven for fraudsters, rip-off merchants and shonky salespeople.

Instead, he wanted to stress the new industries basing themselves beside the beach – and the runs are on the board. Look at the Health and Knowledge Precinct and our education institutions — we even launch rockets these days thanks to Gilmour Space. (Suck it, Elon.)

That’s the good news. The bad news is that, unfortunately, these days our residents are far more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of scams.

It’s not that we’re the only ones receiving phone calls, text messages and emails from con artists, it’s just that we seem more susceptible.

The sad truth is that, while our economy is growing, we don’t yet have the big business status of capital cities, meaning that we also don’t have as many high-salaried jobs as they do.

What we do have is incredibly high property prices, soaring cost-of-living stresses and a booming population … which also means more competition for jobs.

Add those two pressures together – lower earnings, higher costs – and you have a population more inclined to believe in something that seems too good to be true. Why? Because we have the ‘x’ factor: desperation.

Many of those who fall pray to scams are simply desperate.

The Guardian this week reported on just such a case.

It wrote that Rose, a Gold Coast mother of three, was contacted via WhatsApp by someone describing themselves as a recruitment officer offering her $950 a week to write fake reviews for high-profile hotel chains and other sites selling products online.

“The scammers paid more for ‘prepaid tasks’, where Rose put in money and was paid back extra. She made $400 in two days. The scammers instructed Rose to put in larger and larger amounts – until they stopped paying her back,” the Guardian reported.

Ultimately, Rose lost $10,000.

But Antipoverty Centre spokesman Kristin O’Connell says Rose wasn’t stupid, just desperate.

“The reason the poorest people in the community are particularly vulnerable to these scams isn’t because they’re not suspicious of them, it’s because … (they’re) desperate,” said Ms O’Connell.

It’s the same reason why the Gold Coast is the unofficial capital of multi-level marketing schemes like Amway, doTERRA and Juice Plus.

To be clear, these are not scams. However, evidence shows that despite potential recruits being sold an opportunity to make millions while working from home, the reality is vastly different.

In fact, a major study into MLMs by the US Federal Trade Commission found that 99 per cent of recruited representatives not only did not make money, but actually lost money.

So whether we’re looking for a job, desperately trying to make ends meet or just can’t remember whether or not we paid that toll (looking at you, Linkt scam), we’re living in a city where frauds are all too easy to find.

And now even Elon has turned what was once a fun place to scroll into yet another unsafe space to get scammed.

Originally published as Scammers preying on Gold Coaster’s desperation