Central Coast sporting fans have been urged to avoid online livestream scams

As local sporting competitions continue around the Central Coast, people are being warned to avoid online livestream scams, with some fans already falling victim.

Sporting fans on the Central Coast are being warned not to click on links purporting to show live streams of local competitions after several people were caught out in an online scam.

Since local senior competitions kicked off around one month ago, a number of people from different clubs have clicked on social media links – often posted as comments on official club Facebook pages – that claim to show a stream of matches.

However upon following the link and paying a small sign-up fee, several people have found that a larger sum has been deducted from their accounts, and that there is in fact no live streaming service.

One of those to have been caught out is Toukley Hawks Rugby League Club president Phil Gearside, who was stung earlier this year while looking to watch his son play for the Army rugby league team.

“My wife clicked on the link and it said you’ve got to pay one dollar to subscribe,” he said.

“She paid that twice and just said, ‘Oh, didn’t work, couldn’t connect.’ But then later she came out and said, ‘Oh my god, they’ve taken two lots of $80 out of our account.’ It happened to one of our first graders as well the other week, it’s rampant at the moment.”

Toukley has warned it social media followers about the scam. Photo: Toukley Hawks Senior RLFC – Facebook

While Gearside and others have noted that they have received refunds either by contacting their banks or the companies purporting to offer streams, people are being warned to be extra vigilant when it comes to clicking on live stream links, and to only trust links from officials sites or organisations.

Some of the links are posted as direct replies to comments on the Facebook pages of local clubs. Photo: supplied

Many of the scam links are posted as comments on the Facebook pages of local sporting groups, with some even posted as a direct comments to fans and players of the respective clubs.

Although some clubs record their games to help with match analysis, at present the Central Coast Rugby League competition is not broadcast on any streaming service, and most clubs only share the recordings of games via private messages rather than publicly on social media.

The warning comes in the same week as a report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that Australians lost a record $3.1bn to scams last year, up from $2bn in 2021.

The ACCC did however note that the real figure was likely to be far higher, as most people do not report their losses.