Phishing scams with ‘professional’ looking spoof numbers on the rise as ACCC warns consumers to be wary

The ACCC has urged people to be wary of sophisticated phishing scams such as spoofing in the wake of an Albany woman being scammed out of her life savings. A spokeswoman for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Scamwatch was aware of scammers impersonating banks using “spoofed” phone numbers and sender IDs, which copy legitimate numbers and IDs. “These scams are a sophisticated form of phishing and are designed to trick victims into contacting the scammers,” she said. “As the sender ID is spoofed the communication looks legitimate and people think they are dealing with their bank and will call the telephone number contained in the SMS.” She said that a sense of “urgency” was often portrayed so that people would act quickly without taking time to think “is this a scam”? “Scamwatch has seen examples where scammers send an SMS with the sender ID spoofed and tell the person to expect a phone call from their bank’s customer service,” the spokeswoman said. “The scammer will then call the person on the spoofed bank telephone number. These scams are becoming more common and look professional.” Key things to check to discern between spoof and legitimate numbers are: whether messages have similar language and formatting, a sense of urgency, suspicious links, if a number included in an SMS is listed on a website, and being immediately being told an account is being hacked, the ACCC said. Ways to protect yourself include double-checking your account through your secure banking app or online, hanging up immediately if you have doubts about the call and never providing passwords or personal information over the phone. If you suspect you have been scammed, contact your bank as soon as possible, stop all contact with the scammer, and change your passwords if you have given out that information.