Beware bank impersonation scams
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch has reported an increase in the number of ‘bank impersonation’ scams this year – with many people losing their life savings. According to Scamwatch, there were more than 14,600 instances of bank impersonation scams in 2022 alone, with people losing more than $20 million.
Bank impersonation scams are becoming highly sophisticated and increasingly harder to detect. For instance, scammers can disguise their caller ID as legitimate numbers, making it hard to spot whether a text message or phone call is a scam.
DVA may use text messages or emails to ask you to contact us, but we will never ask you to provide personal identifying information through these channels.
How to protect yourself?
- Beware of scam callers pretending to be your bank, claiming your account was compromised and directing you to move your funds to a 'secure' account. The call might even show the real phone number of your bank. It is advised that you end the call and contact your bank on a number you have been able to verify independently, such as via their website or from your bank statement.
- Don’t trust a message just because it appears in a previous thread (series of messages) from your bank.
- If you get a text or call from your bank, ask yourself if it could be fake. You can always call them back on a number you trust – see above.
- Never give online banking passwords, one-time security codes, pins or money to anyone over the phone, even if they claim to be from your bank.
- For more information on how to protect yourself, visit www.scamwatch.gov.au.
Scams awareness information is also available elsewhere on the Latest News page of the DVA website.