August• 2017 | 45READER’S DIGEST
money. They’ll threaten you with fines,
charges or even arrest until you agree.
Some of the most commonly imper-
sonated Australian agencies include
the Department of Immigration and
Border Protection, Australian Taxation
Office (ATO), Centrelink and the Aus-
tralian Federal Police, while in New
Zealand the Inland Revenue
Department and Immigra-
tion New Zealand are
also favourites among
scammers. “The guy
was so authoritative
- he shut down any of
my queries with ‘I’m
the one asking the
questions, not you’,”
says one recent victim of
a tax scam.
Other varieties of these nasty
scams involve you accidently down-
loading ransomware that locks your
computer until you pay a fee, or even
hit man scams, where someone con-
tacts you out of the blue pretending to
be a hit man who’s been hired to kill
you. Of course, they’ll spare you if you
send them money.
What to look out for: Representatives
of government agencies will never
threaten you for money, and will
provide their name and affiliation.
If you’re suspicious, call the switch-
board and ask to speak to the person.
FIGHTING BACK
Just as cybercrime is growing and
becoming more sophisticated, so are
government and business attempts to
thwart it. Scamwatch works to educate
the public and disrupt scammers, for
example by liaising with banks and
credit transfer agencies to help them
recognise the latest scams. They also
work with Austrac, a government
financial intelligence agency that
monitors criminal financial
transactions to identify and
warn people who could
be unwittingly sending
money to scammers.
According to van
Horen, the Common-
wealth Bank is invest-
ing huge amounts of
money in prevention
and detection technol-
ogy. “Scamming costs a
lot of money and we would
rather provide customers with peace
of mind and 100% security guar-
antee,” he says. “This means using
sophisticated monitoring tools and
algorithms, and even artificial intel-
ligence to identify at-risk customers
who might need more monitoring.”
The best advice? If in doubt, pick up
the phone and check it out. Banks
and businesses have departments
dedicated to helping customers who
are being scammed, and they’re wait-
ing for your call. “Customers feel em-
barrassed,” admits van Horen. “But
pick up the phone and call the 24/7
helplines. We try and protect custom-
ers’ money – there is no downside to
seeking help.”