New text message scam targeting customers from major Aussie bank
Aussies have been warned about a surprisingly convincing text message scam aiming to trick customers from a major bank into handing over their details.
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Aussies have been warned about a tricky new text message scam attempting to catch out customers for a major bank.
The text message aims to trick ANZ customers into believing a payment is being taken from their account and in order to find out more detail they must click a provided link.
“ANZ: Mr R. James will be paid as requested on June 14, 2022. If you weren't instructed this, head here anz-login.ref-aus.com,” the message reads.
After clicking on the link, users can then be directed to revealing personal information, such as passwords or credit card and banking details.
This type of scam is known as a phishing scam. They are designed to look genuine, and often copy the format used by the organisation the scammer is pretending to represent.
For example, at first glance, the website address linked in the text messages looks as if it could be a genuine ANZ link.
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Once the scammer has your personal details, they can use them to carry out fraudulent activities, such as taking money from your bank account or using your credit cards.
News.com.au understands that the website in this text message has now been taken down and steps have been taken to mitigate fraud risks.
An ANZ spokesperson urged customers to contact the bank if they believe they have been contacted by a possible scammer.
“ANZ will never send you an email or SMS asking you to verify or provide your account details, financial details or login details for ANZ phone banking, internet banking or mobile banking,” the spokesperson said.
“Should customers have any concerns or believe they have received a suspicious email, text message or call we encourage them to visit the ANZ hoax detection reporting page and follow the steps to identify, report and protect themselves from common scams.”
Earlier this month, Scamwatch revealed Australians had lost more than $205 million to scams between January 1 and May 1 this year.
This is a 166 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, new data has shown, though the true losses are likely to be much higher.
Scamwatch revealed only around 13 per cent of people report their monetary losses to the organisation, which is run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said text messages are becoming the most popular form of contact for scammers, with texting up 54 per cent so far this year, surpassing a phone call as the most common contact method.
“If you receive an unexpected text message or phone call from someone offering you an opportunity to invest, it is likely a scam and you should immediately hang up or delete the message,” Ms Rickard said.
By comparison, phone scams have almost halved, a result that could possibly be contributed to the telecommunications industry’s Reducing Scams Call Code 2020.
This code blocks incoming calls from scammers, with telecommunication providers blocking more than 549 million scam calls since its introduction.
New rules aimed at blocking scam text messages in a similar fashion are set to be introduced this year.
The majority of monetary losses so far this year have been to investment scams, which make up $158 million of the reported losses and points to a 314 per cent increase from 2021.
While the reported losses have increased, the number of reports has reduced slightly, indicating that on average people reported higher individual losses.
“We are seeing more money lost to investment scams and so are urging all Australians not to trust investment opportunities that seem too good to be true,” Ms Rickard said.
Many of these scams have involved crypto investments, with cryptocurrency the most common payment method for investment scams.
Originally published as New text message scam targeting customers from major Aussie bank
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