Christmas shopping tips - buy local, beware of fake sellers & online scams.

Westpac is warning customers against SMS messages claiming that their accounts may be suspended and that additional verification is necessary via a supplied link. Ignore the message and do not click on the link. It is a bogus message. Westpac said it never sends SMS messages to customers asking them to log into their online banking for security or verification purposes. "We recommend you always sign in using our App or by typing westpac.com.au into your browser," Westpac ad

More than $4 million a month is being lost by Australians through a wave of investment scams increasing in numbers every month.

Greater Western Sydney small business owners are being urged to attend a free cyber security briefing on Thursday morning in expectation of a surge in cybercrime over the Christmas – New Year trading period, potentially disrupting commercial and administrative data transactions. The briefing, at Norwest Business Park, will explain why the cyber security industry is forecasting a cybercrime surge and outline implications for businesses of the Federal Government’s new mandatory

This week is Stay Smart Online Week - an awareness campaign by the ACCC warning business and consumers to be smart about their online transactions as scam reports continue to increase. 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. The online sphere – email, the internet, social media and mobile apps – has o

It's hard to believe, but businesses and individuals are being conned by a payment scam using . . . Apple iTunes gift cards. The Federal Government's consumer 'watchdog', the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is reporting that some 1236 people so far this year have lost nearly $540,000 to scammers using gift cards as payments. “Scammers are increasingly getting their victims to pay with iTunes gift cards as they can quickly on-sell them and pocket the mo

While some might argue the NBN is a scam itself, there's a genuine threat from scammers pretending to be from the NBN calling business and home owners looking for payments and personal information. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a warning today saying it had received some 316 complaints from victims who have reportedly lost nearly $28,000 to the scammers. Most common of the NBN impersonator scams involve: Signing victims up to fake accounts –