‘I fell for it’: Melbourne man’s warning to others amid delivery text scam

A Melbourne man has shared his shock after falling victim to an international scam, revealing that hackers accessed his card details within “minutes” of the deception.

A Melbourne man has spoken to his horror of falling victim to an international scam, with the hackers accessing his card details within “minutes” of the deception.

The victim was waiting for his new passport to be delivered when he received a message that appeared to be from Australia Post, claiming they couldn’t deliver his package due to incorrect information.

At the time, on June 19, he was off-site with colleagues and responded quickly, not realising it was a scam originating from the Philippines.

Soon after, he began receiving notifications on his phone about attempts to charge 33,800 Japanese yen, around $350AUD, to his credit card.

A Melbourne man has spoken to his horror of falling victim to an international scam. Picture: Supplied

“It took me a little bit to tweak the fact that the number had come from the Philippines,” he said.

“I was stupid enough to respond and pay for what they wanted, which was a very small amount of money on my credit card.

“Almost immediately things started flashing up on my phone for a net code for 33,000 Japanese yen for this. Then they tried again and again and again.

“They started trying to buy things on my card within about 10 minutes of having the number.”

Luckily he said his bank blocked the transactions due to it requiring a net code.

Luckily he said his bank blocked the transactions due to it requiring a net code. Picture: Supplied

The victim, who has been a part of Qantas’ exclusive member-only Chairman’s Lounge for decades, also received an email on Friday morning from the airline revealing that his personal data was accessed as part of the recent cyber incident.

Qantas revealed it was the victim of a data breach impacting around 5.7 million customers last week.

The breach stemmed from unauthorised access to a third-party customer service platform used by one of its call centres in the Philippines.

Qantas maintains the cyber incident was first identified on June 30 and is yet to confirm or deny if the company has been asked to pay a ransom.

News Corp is not suggesting the hack experienced by the victim was a result of the Qantas breach.

The breach stemmed from unauthorised access to a third-party customer service platform. Picture: David Geraghty

The letter to the victim from Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson confirmed a raft of his personal data had been stolen, including his address, name, email address, Qantas Frequent Flyer number, date of birth and phone number.

“There is no evidence that any stolen personal data has been released but, with the support of specialist cyber security experts, we continue to actively monitor,” the letter read.

“I’d like to reassure you that our investigation has reaffirmed that no credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were stored in this system and therefore have not been accessed.

“I know this incident has been concerning and I am deeply sorry for the uncertainty this has caused.”

The letter to the victim from Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson confirmed a raft of his personal data had been stolen.

The airline previously disclosed on Wednesday that the “majority” of a subset of 2.8 million customer records had name, email address and frequent flyer information, including the level of Qantas membership of the affected customer.

The stolen information on membership tiers includes whether the frequent flyer is a member of the Chairman’s Lounge.

Membership in Qantas’ exclusive Chairman’s Lounge has traditionally included MPs, the prime minister, and top executives from the country’s largest corporations.

A class action ‘likely’ for Qantas

Attwood Marshall Lawyers legal practice director Jeff Garrett said the Qantas’ cyber breach was likely to end up in some sort of class action.

“To what extent that is, will depend on what happens, and whether there’s any further use of the data that results in things happening to the people that are impacted by it,” he said.

“The body that looks after the breaches of the Privacy Act, they’ll get involved no doubt.

“I think everyone’s just sitting back waiting to see how bad it is and whether there’s going to be any demand by cyber criminals, which could well be the case.”

Attwood Marshall Lawyers legal practice director Jeff Garrett. Picture: Supplied

Mr Garrett said there had been quite a few class actions in recent times over data breaches, including Medicare and Optus.

“You’ll usually have a couple of lead plaintiffs (in a class action) and that sort of sets the tone for the other members of the class action about how much they get,” he said.

“How much they get depends on the severity of the breach and the consequences to the person whose data has been leaked.

“That’s why I think everyone’s standing back waiting to see what happens (with Qantas).

“Because if everyone’s data is leaked to cyber criminals, that’s a pretty bad thing to happen.

“You’ve got your (date of birth) and Frequent Flyer number floating around out there. To anyone who wants to use it, that’s probably three quarters the way to setting up an alternative identity.”

Originally published as ‘I fell for it’: Melbourne man’s warning to others amid delivery text scam