General News
22 August, 2022
Maryborough resident warns community of Telstra scam
Community members are being urged to be wary of scammers impersonating Telstra employees, with one local resident scammed out of just over $1000 last week. The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said they received a call from someone claiming...
Community members are being urged to be wary of scammers impersonating Telstra employees, with one local resident scammed out of just over $1000 last week.
The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said they received a call from someone claiming to be a Telstra technician last Wednesday, who said they could fix the resident’s slow internet speed.
“They said they were a Telstra technician and had noticed I’d been having trouble with my internet,” the resident said.
“I wouldn’t have taken much notice of what they were saying but I check the weather every day on my mobile and I couldn’t get it to load.
“If that hadn’t have happened, I would have said there was nothing wrong with my internet.
“This technician brought up a page on my computer showing all the times people had tried to access my computer and said it would cost $10 now it was fixed, but they got more than $10.”
The resident later found $1030 had been withdrawn from her bank account in the scam, which is known as a remote access scam.
According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch website, there have been more than 7600 reports of remote access scams this year, which have cost Australians over $15 million.
The website states in these types of scams, scammers will often say your computer has been sending error messages, they can fix your internet connection or phone line connection and the caller will request remote access to your computer to find the alleged problem.
The incident was reported to police and Central Goldfields Crime Investigation Unit Detective Senior Constable Joel Peters said they are a fairly common occurrence.
“This is a very common scam that’s been ongoing for a long time,” he said.
“It’s rare that companies like Telstra contact you like this and services like that will not ask for any of your details or passwords if they do contact you.
“If Telstra do contact you, they will ask you to go through the usual means to access your accounts and such.”
Det Sen Con Peters said in these types of scams, scammers can be persistent and urged residents who think they’ve been scammed to report it.
“If anyone is scammed, they can report the matter to their local police station and also go online to www.cyber.gov.au and report it through that means as well,” he said.
“If you are contacted by someone you believe is a scammer, hang up straight away, block the number and report it through the cyber website.”
Residents who have been, or believe they have been scammed are also urged to contact their bank to secure their accounts.