People are struggling hard to make money in foreign countries. Students and other visitors are hardly making money and scammers are getting their money with fraud. Scammers are inventing different new ideas each day to scam people. These techniques include online dating scams, phone calls, phishing emails, and many other ways. Some scammers give you a unique product or service that can attract you and ask for personal credentials. If you give them your PIINs or some account information, they can harm your privacy and vanish your balance from your bank account in no time.
This way, you will lose all your hard-earned money. The most prominent aspect of a scam is romantic apps. Scammers make fake accounts and trap you in their plan. Once you believe them and share all your personal information with them, they directly attack your bank accounts.
In this article, you will come to know what is scamming, the types of scams in Australia and how to avoid scams. So, let’s start with the term scamming.
What is Scamming?
A scam is known as a deceptive scheme that is used to cheat someone out of something, especially money. For example, Banks and other financial apps don’t ask you for private information such as your account PIN. They are aware of scammers and tell you not to share any bank code with anyone even with the bank. If someone is calling you and asking you for personal credentials, it must be a scammer. You should take serious action against that call or scam.
I hope you have understood the concept of scamming. Now, I am discussing the various types of scams. All the types of scams are impossible to explain but I will cover them to some extent. So, let’s jump straight to the types of scams and how to avoid scams.
Different Types of Scams in Australia
Taxi Billing Scam
The most common scam in Australia is the taxi billing scam. Taxi drivers do a lot of scams for tourists who come here to enjoy their vacations. Some drivers don’t fix the rate before travel and once you get into the taxi, they demand higher rates. That time you have to pay them what they demand. Some drivers charge you on the basis of meter and their billing meters are defective. They give lame excuses for defective meters and generate more bills for the ride.
How to Avoid?
There are many scammers who scam visitors in Australia because they don’t know the rates in Australia. If you are going to Australia and want to enjoy your vacation, you have to be careful about these scammers. First, When you order your taxi from an online site, you should check their online reviews. Some fake websites take money in advance and don’t have any taxi services.
Second, If you hire a taxi, you have to fix the rates before starting your journey. This way, you will not face any hindrances and your journey will be good. Third, you should check the driver’s profile whether he seems a good person or not. If you are comfortable with him, you can start your journey. Otherwise, you can cancel your ride and ask for other drivers.
Phishing Attack
A phishing attack is a type of scam that is done through SMS, email, and phone calls. Scammers send you messages just like a financial bank, study institution, or business workplace. They urge you to tell them your personal identity or attach a spam link to the message. If you don’t tell them your information but click on the link, they might get your mobile or laptop access. You must avoid these spam links as well.
According to scamwatch Australia, a clear indication of the scam message is that they always tell you to do the actions urgently. They create an emergency situation to trap your attention and get your personal information. For example, They will tell you that there is an unauthorized purchase from your account and please share your bank account with us. They may claim that there is an Optus data breach.
How to Avoid?
First of all, you just have to be calm in these situations. You should not panic and read the messages carefully. You should use the official app of your bank account or can call your related bank for further information about the call. If they don’t know about this activity, you must call the police about this suspicious activity. If it is from your related institutes, you can answer these queries but don’t share your personal information.
Covid-19 Scam
People don’t see the situation and they always harm others with different techniques. During the pandemic situation of coronavirus, scammers were taking money from people for vaccines. They know the corona vaccines’ names and offer people online vaccines. The people were facing fraud by following methods:
- During the pandemic, vaccines were in short supply and their demand was too high. Scammers were requesting advance money from people to quickly access the vaccines.
- They took money from the people and told them to send you vaccines through delivery services.
- They searched for the people who scammed them who are new here. They conduct fake surveys of coronavirus and get money from them. They urge people to take part in the survey and offer them prizes on the basis of the survey.
How to Avoid?
You should get rid of these kinds of scams by checking their ID cards/ official cards. The Australian government just provides awareness of Coronavirus to people and won’t give any prizes. You can also check through confirmation calls to the related departments. If the scammers send you messages or any form of the survey with a link, you should not click on it. If you click on the link, they can get access to your personal data.
Another good way of protecting your bank details is to verify each request of changing account information from the bank. If you want to change any information, you should call your bank. There must be a multi-person approval request for a huge transaction. If you apply this strategy, scammers have to face multiple approvals for doing a single transaction. In this way, you can save your account from scammers.
Romance Scam
Scammers are looking for people who want to make relationships on dating sites. They pretend to be a great match for you and demand money, expensive gifts, and other things by playing with your emotions. Scammers trap you in their plan and contact you through mobile or email to send you spam links.
According to a report, Australians and other visitors lose millions of dollars every year from romance scams. This scam is also known as “Catfishing”. Scammers mostly create fake profiles on dating sites and social media that seem quite legitimate. They mostly target those people who are over the 50s because those people are more financially stable and looking for online relationships. They gain your trust and generate feelings in you and then ask for help in paying their medical bills, house bills, flights, and other things.
How to Avoid?
You can check whether the user is using the account normally or not. If they demand something from you in the initial stages of the conversation, this must be a scam. You should not send any money order, international transaction, or any other transaction. If they are not asking these things and want to meet in person, you must tell your family where you are going. Scammers can do anything if they trap you.
False Billing Scam
False billing scam urges you to pay business bills like domain renewal, directory listening, advertising, or office inventory that you did not order. There are many forms of false billing that are listed below:
- Domain Name Renewal
- Payment redirection scam
- Office inventory scam
- Fake advertising
Scammers send you a fake invoice to renew your domain name or call you to send you online payment for goods and services you’ve ordered. Scammers send fake bills and attach some links with them to infect your computer. If you receive any fake bill or advertisement, you should not open any kind of link attached to it.
Fake directories consist of a form that is attached with a link to be filled out and it seems like an original document but it is not. It seems like you are entering for free in it but the amount is printed in a tiny size on the paper. When you fill out the form and complete it, then you have to pay the amount that is mentioned on the paper. When you realize it and don’t pay, the scammers threaten you with legal action.
Domain name renewal is mandatory in Australia after a couple of years. Scammers send you fake invoices to renew your website domain. They send fake names such as “.au”, “.au.com”, “Au.” and many others. This will be similar to your domain name so that you might click on the link and pay the bills. Maybe, you will receive a letter from another company for the renewal of a domain name that is similar to your website name.
An office supply scam is a scam in which you get an invoice for the goods and services that you did not order for your office. These invoices often have the things you use regularly in your offices such as paper, printer, maintenance supplies, and advertising.
Warning Signs
- You receive a call from or an invoice from a publication to confirm your entry but they will hiddenly charge you.
- The caller will claim that the government wants to register you on the list.
- You receive a letter or invoice to renew your website domain and maybe they will charge you higher than before.
- You receive invoices for goods and services for your office and they insist you take this even if you did not order them.
How to Avoid?
You should not agree to any offer on the phone call and you must ask them for written papers. If you are not sure about the publications, you should ask them to give more details about them. You should carefully check if the goods and services you ordered are safely collected or not before paying any invoice. Try to give access to generate invoices to the minimum number of people. It will help you to check who has ordered the goods and services. You should keep written records of authorizations of directories and publications. International scams are increasing day by day in large numbers. We all should beware of them and save our dear friends and family members from these kinds of scams.
Overpayment Scam
Overpayment is a scam in which a scammer sends a high-value cheque to you for the good you are selling and asks you to refund extra money. The scammer will contact you and ask you in a soft manner about the refund of the extra money from his cheque. The scammer will make an excuse for overpayment to you before clearance of the cheque. The scammer will make lame excuses for extra payment cheques whether he paid money for shipment or mistakenly wrote the wrong amount on the cheque.
The scammer then calls you and asks you for an excessive amount of the cheque through online payment, Western Union, banking transfer, and many more. If you send money to them, you will not get it back.
How to Avoid?
If you are running an online business and selling something on the internet, you have to be careful of scammers. You have to verify each and every payment and check very carefully. Financial matters are very sensitive so you must be alert when you are doing such a business.
Online Shopping Scam
There are many fake sellers over the internet but they pretend to be real retailers. In Australia, scammers are doing such kinds of scams with people and Australian visitors. There are the following types of online shopping scams people face in Australia.
Fake Retailer Websites are the most digital way of doing scams in Australia. Scammers make websites that are so well-designed and developed that people can trust blindly on them. They use fake logos, fake domain names, and even Australian Business Numbers. You order them your favorite items and they ask you for advance payment for your selected items. When you send them money online, they don’t send any notification and you don’t get anything you wanted to purchase. On the other hand, when you order from the original website, you get a text message about package delivery in Australia.
Auction sites are also a source of scamming for scammers. Scammers ask people to get the deal outside the auction site. When you send them money and want to get the thing, they never reply to you again. Auction sites can’t help you out in this matter.
Another important online scam is classified ads. Scammers post fake ads on goods and services at low prices and earn a lot of money from this scam.
Key Takeaways
In the world of business, there are many legitimate people who do their business with honesty. On the other hand, you will also face scammers who scam people and earn money in illegal ways. Scammers in Australia mostly scam visitors because they are not aware of Australian things and are easily scammed. In the above section of this article, I have covered the top scams in Australia.
After reading this article, I hope you are well aware of Australian scams and will take care of each scammer. Here is the summary of the entire article:
- The most common fraud in Australia is the Taxi billing scam. The visitors must take care of essential things to save them from these scams.
- Phishing is the most dangerous scam that can take all your personal access from mobile and laptops. You should not click on any spam links and try to protect your accounts with multi-person authentication.
- The covid-19 scam was at its peak during the pandemic but some people use this scam even after this situation. You have to go to a clinic or hospital for this kind of treatment and save yourself from the scams.
- A romance scam is a common scam that mostly targets over 50s people in Australia. People should check their profiles very carefully and don’t send money to anyone without meetings.
- People mostly send you false bills and take money from you even if you don’t order anything. Try to verify each bill and then you should give money to anyone.
- Some scammers send you the request for the overpayment of the cheque and ask you to send the extra money back. You should verify all the payment processes and then send money to anyone.
- Some scammers create fake shopping websites that look exactly like the original websites. You order them your favorite products and pay in advance and don’t receive any parcel then. You have to check the credibility of the website and sellers and don’t send advance payment.
