What to do if you’ve been scammed?

Anyone can fall victim to a scam. Scammers are persistent. If, unfortunately, you think you’ve been scammed online, here are the steps you can take to reduce the impact and start to protect yourself:

• Notify your bank or financial services provider immediately. Inform them that you’ve fallen victim to a remote access scam and have an alert/flag placed on your profile to prevent further compromise.
• Monitor your bank account or credit card for any unauthorised activity.
• Update your MyGov security details immediately if impacted.  Change password, secret questions / answers, PIN and mobile app PIN. 
• Consider reporting the matter to Scam Watch - https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam - a report to Scam Watch helps the agency disrupt scams, monitor trends, and warn others about new and emerging scams. 
• If you have been tricked to hand over your money or information, lodge a police report via the Australian Cyber Security Centre https://www.cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report. Please keep the report number once this has been completed.
• Contact ID Care <https://www.idcare.org/>, Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service. ID Care is a free service that helps victims of ID fraud. 
• Check your credit report via Equifax, Illion or Experion, and subscribe to credit alerts that let you monitor changes to your credit file.
• Get your compromised device(s) cleaned by an IT professional.  Ask for a forensic clean to remove any compromise including running regular security scans. 
• Change your device password(s). Further fraudulent activity may occur unless a full forensic clean is undertaken and a full password reset is conducted post clean.

Protect yourself with these steps

• Do not share account login information with anyone, including security codes, passwords, or SMS verification codes. No reputable company will call over the phone and ask to remotely log into any device. If unsure, ask for a reference number and call back on a trusted number to confirm if the call was genuine.

• Never give a stranger remote access to your computer.

• Do not click any links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. 

• Do not give out your personal, account or online details unless the phone number comes from a trusted source. 

• Scammers are persistent and will target those that have already fallen victim to a scam in the hopes of scamming again. Learn how to keep yourself safe online by visiting staysmartonline.gov.au.