Post office catches scammers out

Consumer Protection is warning people in Albany of a scam which nearly cost a local man more than $1000 last week.

The scam involves someone imitating Australian Government authorities and is known as the overpayment scam.

The man was trying to send money to the scammers by post when staff at the Sanford Road Post Office became suspicious and sent him to Consumer Protection.

The initial phone call claimed Western Union had released $1500 from the man’s bank account without his authority.

The caller said Western Union could only repay him $2600 because of payment restrictions and he would need to pay back the difference of $1100.

Consumer Protection senior regional officer Iris Thomas said the complicated nature of the phone calls the man received legitimised the scam.

“In this case they’ve made it look really legitimate,” she said.

Ms Thomas praised post office staff for their awareness.

“I would like to make a point of acknowledging the post office because they’ve just saved him all that money,” she said.

“They’ve saved thousands of dollars from going across by picking it up straight away.”

Scammers were known to share phone numbers between each other, Ms Thomas said.

“What happens in cases like that is they pass his number on to other scammers — they have lists that they sell on to each other,” she said

“Because I hadn’t heard of this one before, I thought I should get it out there just to let everybody be aware.”

The Department of Commerce also recently warned of scammers posing as the Australian Tax Office and targeting WA residents.

In this scam, unsolicited calls are made claiming the resident owes the ATO money and funds are often aggressively demanded.

The scams frequently use emails or addresses linked to legitimate ATO locations, further adding to the illusion.

The department urges anyone in doubt about whether the ATO has legitimately contacted them to speak with the ATO through its verified phone numbers.

For more advice, visit scamnet.wa.gov.au .

Common types of scams:

Unexpected money

Unexpected winnings

Fake charities

Dating and romance

Buying and selling

Threats or extortion

(Source: scamwatch)