Australians lost over $851 million to scams in 2020, a record amount, as scammers took advantage of the pandemic to con unsuspecting people, according to the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report released today.

“Unfortunately scammers continue to become more sophisticated and last year used the COVID-19 pandemic to scam and take advantage of people from all walks of life during this crisis.” stated ACCC Deputy Chair. “Victoria, which was significantly impacted by the second wave of the virus, recorded the highest losses nationwide for the first time and Victorians reported $49 million in losses to Scamwatch, more than double those in 2019.”

Health and medical scams increased more than 20 fold compared to 2019, accounting for over $3.9 million in losses.

Phishing activity also thrived during the pandemic, especially through government impersonation scams. There were over 44,000 reports of phishing scams, representing a 75 per cent increase.  

Gobbill continues to protect small businesses and households from scams and fraud throughout Covid. Join Gobbill today to have the confidence that you have cyber protection from fraudsters.

Source ACCC June 2021 https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news-alerts/scammers-capitalise-on-pandemic-as-australians-lose-record-851-million-to-scams

Gobbill would have STOPPED this invoice fraud and saved Jane $51,000.

The West Australian reported “Heartless scammers steal $100k off WA family as NBN Co issues alert over two new scams targeting residents”

Heartless scammers have ripped off a WA family to the tune of $100,000 amid warnings about two new NBN-related scams aimed at households in the State.

The family was targeted at the same time legitimate NBN Co contractors were working in the area nearby — a tactic reportedly used by scammers to confuse their victims.

NBN Co’s head of state media Jane McNamara said the scam was a variation on one that had come to light recently, in which scammers claimed radiation or harmful UV rays were coming from the computer.

Ms McNamara said another new scam involved residents being sent a fraudulent NBN invoice for payment after being offered an NBN upgrade over the phone.

This week is National Scams Awareness Week (#Scamsweek2020) which Gobbill has been a partner of since 2015.

Gobbill was made in Australia to protect families and small businesses from bill payment fraud.

>>>> Protected yourself from #fraud involving fake invoices by using Gobbill.  https://gobbill.com/signup FREE for households.

Read more

The Australia taxation office has received reports that myGov related SMS and email scams are targeting Australians. The increased SMS and email scams coincide with tax time where millions of Australians are accessing and engaging with myGov services. 

What do the scams look like?  

These myGov related scams looks as if they have been sent from a myGov or ATO email address. Scammers utilise technology that allows emails to be sent in a similar way to conversation threads sent by myGov or ATO messaging.  

The call to action in the email is to click a link that asks for your personal details for ‘verification purposes.’ The official advice from ATO is ‘DON’T click any links’ and ‘DON’T provide the information requested.’ 

Example of a scam message from the Australia Cyber Security Centre. Source: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/alerts/increasing-reports-mygov-related-sms-and-email-scams-targeting-australians 

How to protect yourself from myGov related scam: 

If a scam email or SMS is delivered to you, do not open the links or provide any personal details or information requested. 

Remember:

• ATO will never send a message asking you to access their services via a URL.  
• Sign in anytime to your myGov accounts to check updates on tax affairs 
• For extra protection on your myGov account, enable two-factor authentication (2FA). This can be accessed by signing into your myGov account and turning the feature on in ‘Account settings’ 
• If you see a suspicious myGov email or SMS with a URL, email: [email protected]. 
• If you have clicked a link on a myGov email or SMS and entered your details, contact: Services Australia on 1800 941 126. 

For more information visit: https://www.cyber.gov.au/

• Australian fintech AirPay and bill payment automation company Gobbill to launch a new app feature for 1+ million users.
• The “ToPay” feature is available via Chinese media app Today Australia, allowing Australian bills to be paid with WeChat Pay and Alipay.

Melbourne, Australia 24 March, 2020 – Fraud detection and payment automation company Gobbill and Chinese mobile payment company AirPay, have embedded Alipay and WeChat payments into a popular media platform to allow users to pay Australian bills with China’s favourite payment methods.

Over one million users will have the capability to pay Australian bills with WeChat Pay and Alipay, with a market-first feature called “ToPay” in popular Chinese media app, Today Australia.

The ‘ToPay’ feature will allow Today Australia users pay and categorise bills including phone, utilities, school fees, council rates and more, within a single app.

Users will also receive rewards scheme, such as discount meals via popular Asian food delivery platform Hungry Panda.

AirPay Head of FinTech Simon Tse said: “We are thrilled to announce our industry collaboration with Gobbill to provide Australian-Chinese a seamless and secure way to pay bills via smartphone. Our new payment platform “ToPay” helps us open new verticals, in addition to our wide QR payments coverage in high-end retail brands such as Gucci, Victoria’s Secret, Sneakerboy, Champion, Glue Store owned by Kering group, Valiram group, LRG group, Hanes Brands and Next Athleisure”.  

“Chinese sales across retail are down 30-50 per cent this month, and we predict it will be a difficult financial year for many companies. Our next goal is to drive one million Chinese consumers to merchants via the everyday usage of our app” said Tse.

Gobbill CEO and co-founder Shendon Ewans said: “The timing is right to bring the two technologies together to process Chinese payments in Australia. We expect the convenience of making payments through a media app and associated rewards as an advantage.”

The payments function will be enabled by Gobbill as part of the company’s growth into the broader payments sector, particularly in connecting global markets with seamless and secure payments. Using AI automation, Gobbill forensically extracts data from invoices, checks for fraud and executes the payments.

For more information, contact via email [email protected] or [email protected]

-ENDS-

About Gobbill

Gobbill is a fraud detection and payment automation service designed for small businesses and busy households to save time, maximise cash flow and protect against scams and fraud. The end-to-end AI platform gives users control over payments with minimal effort. Gobbill forensically extracts data from invoices, checks for fraud using its proprietary “Know Your Biller™” fraud detection technology and automatically executes payments.

Cybercrime and invoice fraud has increased 7 fold in the last 3 years. UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) calls an “epidemic” of 3.8 million fraud cases reported in 2019. FBI is concerned with the issue growing to an estimated $5 trillion in losses by 2024.

Leveraging over 3 years of R&D, Gobbill can pay bills issued from over 40,000 Australian providers. The company is a Microsoft Startup sponsored company, a partner of the Australian Government’s cyber safety initiative, AI partner of Silverpond and member of Stone & Chalk. Gobbill is an Authorised Representative (1261196) of Australian Financial Services Licence Holder (448066). Gobbill’s UK office is based at the Royal Bank & NatWest FinTech Accelerator.

About AirPay Financial Technologies

AirPay is FinTech based in Melbourne with offices in Shanghai and Sydney providing one-stop mobile payment and marketing solution for merchants to accept and promote QR payments. AirPay is also integrated with Shopify to allow online retailers to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay seamlessly. The company is invested by SwiftPass Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of a China listed company and is a member of FinTech Australia.

About Today Australia

Media Today Group (also known as “Today Australia”) http://mediatodaygroup.com is Australia’s largest Chinese Internet “new media” platform delivered through an in-App experience, WeChat Official Account and WeChat Moment.

The group owns Internet media in five major cities: Sydney Today, Melbourne Today, Queensland Today, Adelaide Today, Perth Today, and two vertical Internet platforms: Australian Real Estate Today and Tourism Today.

Since its establishment on April 29, 2010, the group has been adhering to the business philosophy of “best-looking news and most practical information” and has gradually become the most influential and brand-value composite Chinese media group in the Australian Chinese community.

We would like to welcome Andrew Jaworski, Gobbill’s General Counsel. Andrew is an amazing Australian and UK solicitor having worked as a director at KPMG (legal), special counsel at K&L Gates and King & Wood Mallesons, Technology Lawyer at BBC Worldwide…now in the startup world. Welcome Andrew to Gobbill!

Five people have been arrested and luxury cars seized in western Sydney over an organised criminal syndicate suspected of defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme of millions of dollars.

It will be alleged the syndicate controlled three NDIS providers that fraudulently claimed $1.1 million in NDIS payments from more than 70 people on disability plans or those managing their affairs.

Investigations are ongoing, with more than 100 other potential victims identified in connection to the three entities allegedly controlled by the syndicate.

Gobbill is fighting back and is currently piloting a solution to make payments easier and safer for NDIS self-managed participants and plan managers. See https://gobbill.com/ndis

Read more The Australian

Read more ABC News

Beware of scammers impersonating energy and telecommunications companies

Source: ACCC Swamwatch 24 April 2018

The ACCC is warning consumers to beware of scammers impersonating energy and telecommunications providers and demanding payments.

Scamwatch has received 5000 reports of fake billing scams in the last 12 months, with reported losses of close to $8000.

“The scammers typically impersonate well known companies such as Origin, AGL, Telstra and Optus via email, to fool people into assuming the bills are real,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“They send bulk emails or letters which include a logo and design features closely copied from the genuine provider. The bill states the account is overdue and if not paid immediately the customer will incur late charges or be disconnected.”

“Alternatively, the bill may claim that the customer has overpaid and is owed a refund or it may simply say the bill is due and ready to pay,” Ms Rickard said.

New South Wales residents reported the highest number of incidents of the fake billing scam, with 1779 households reporting being victims, compared to 1275 in Queensland and 1245 in Victoria, 485 in Western Australia, 462 in South Australia, 132 in the ACT, 117 in Tasmania and 38 in the Northern Territory.

“Older Australians should particularly be wary of emails pretending to be from utility companies, with people over 65 reporting the most fake utility billing scam incidents,” Ms Rickard said.

“I advise consumers to contact their communications or energy provider directly via the company’s official channels to verify that the email or letter is actually from them.”

“Customers should never use the contact details provided on the suspicious email or letter but instead use an independent source to locate contact details such as a past bill or the phone book.”

In one case reported to the ACCC, a customer received a fake Telstra bill in the mail. The bill stated the customer’s account was overdue and immediate payment was needed. The customer dialled the phone number provided and was asked for his date of birth and driver’s licence number to confirm his identity.

“If customers are duped into phoning scammers they will then attempt to steal as much personal information as they can,” Ms Rickard said.

Other tips on how consumers can protect themselves:

If you receive a bill outside of your normal billing cycle, or don’t expect to receive an overdue notice, call your provider to check whether it is legitimate.
If you are not a customer of the company simply delete the email.
Never click on links or open attachments in an email from an unverified sender – they may contain a malicious virus.
Never send money or give credit card details, online account details or personal information to anyone you don’t know or trust and never by email or over the phone.
Keep your computer secure – always update your firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and only buy from a verified source.

— End —

This Stay Smart Online Week (9-13 October), the ACCC is warning the community to watch out for common online scams they might encounter.

The online sphere – email, the internet, social media and mobile apps – has overtaken telephones as scammers’ preferred tool of the trade to contact potential victims. In 2017, the ACCC’s Scamwatch site has received more than 51,000 reports of scammers trying to con people online. Online scam losses total nearly $37 million so far in 2017, with people aged 45 to 54 most likely to lose money.

Video transcript.

“It’s difficult to spot a scammer online these days as they  go to great lengths  to trick the public and steal personal information and money,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

The top three scams that people are most likely to encounter online are:

• Phishing – often delivered via email, scammers will pretend to be from well-known businesses and government departments to con unsuspecting victims out of their personal information and money. For example they might say they’re from Apple and you need to reset your password for security reasons, or they may offer you a gift voucher to a major supermarket for completing a ‘survey’.
• False billing – scammers will pretend to be from a utility provider such as your phone or energy company and send you a fake bill. These scams can be very hard to pick as the fake bills scammers send look authentic.
• Buying and selling – scammers will trick people who are looking to buy or sell goods online. For example, they may set up a fake online store that sells well-known brands at seemingly too-good-to-be-true prices; or they may set up a fake listing on a classifieds website.

Ms Rickard said there are some simple techniques members of the public can employ to avoid being stung by a scammer online.

“While scammers are often after your money, they’re also trying to steal your personal information, which is just as valuable. It’s important to safeguard your personal details online the same way you would your wallet,” Ms Rickard said.

“If you’re ever contacted out of the blue, particularly via email, by someone asking you to pay a bill, complete a survey or update your passwords, it pays to be sceptical. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

“If you’re unsure about the legitimacy of something online like a store, classified listing or email you receive, do you own research as others who have been stung by scammers will often post warnings for others. There are also plenty of very useful tips and advice at www.scamwatch.gov.au to avoid being stung by online scams,” Ms Rickard said.

Source and to see more information about Stay Smart Online Week.