Date posted:
As technology improvements are made every day to ensure the safety of personal information, scammers have evolved to be evermore deceptive in their pursuit of gaining access to your personal details.
Scammers can use you to gain access to your computer simply by an unsolicited phone call, text message or fake email. Scammers will present themselves as being from a reputable business such as government agencies, service providers and/or banks. The scammers will often guide the individual through a series of steps which results in the scammer gaining full access to your computer. The scammer may ask for you to log on to your internet banking for you to check to see if it is still working. While you are doing this they are seeing everything you are doing so that they can access your login details and other personal information. Unknowingly to you they can also be then making transfers of funds from your accounts.
To safeguard yourself from a scammer:
- Never login to internet banking at the request of anyone.
- Never share your password.
- Never provide your personal details to any unsolicited caller or via email or text message.
- Never allow a person/s to gain access to your computer, either remotely or in person without fully understanding of what the process is and knowing the credentials of the person.
Do:
- If you suspect the unsolicited caller to be reputable, tell them you’ll call the provider back (this way you know they are legitimate).
- Change your passwords on your computer and all online logins regularly and use a strong password.
- Regularly update your computers anti-virus software.
- Encrypt or password protect any files on your computer that contain personal details.
- Log out of your computer.
Safeguarding your personal information is of the utmost importance; stay vigilant, be wary of cold calls asking for access to your computer and seek clarification from a third party if necessary before releasing any information.
For more information visit The Cyber Security Centre, Scamwatch, or ACCC.
If you suspect that your LLL account has been accessed without your approval or knowledge please call our office on 1800 556 457 or email lll@lll.org.au
