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Financial or banking impersonation

Scammers will call, email and message claiming suspicious activity, unauthorized debits or that your account has been suspended. They could request personal details to verify your identity.

Big-name company impersonation

There are four main types of this kind of impersonation:

1. Scam calls about an issue with your Amazon account. They claim funds will be taken from your account if you do not act immediately by providing personal information.
2. Scam callers posing as someone from NBN’s technical support. They claim there is a fault with your internet to get access to your computer and personal information.
3. Similar to the NBN scam, callers pose as Telstra technical support and claim you have issues with your service or internet to access your computer and personal information.
4. Scammers use a recorded message to claim you have made an eBay purchase that requires a charge to your account. This is to get you to provide personal information.

Unexpected money or winnings

Scammers invent convincing and seemingly legitimate reasons to give you false hope about offers of money. Don't be lured by a surprise win or get-rich-quick opportunity. These scams try to trick you into giving money upfront or providing your personal information in order to receive a prize from a lottery or competition, or by handing over your money by offering you a “guaranteed” way to make fast money with little effort.

Buying or selling

Scammers prey on consumers and businesses that are buying or selling products and services. Not every transaction is legitimate.

Dating and romance

Scammers take advantage of people looking for romantic partners, often via dating websites, apps or social media by pretending to be prospective companions. They play on emotional triggers to get you to provide money, gifts or personal details.

Fake charities

Scammers impersonate genuine charities and ask for donations or contact you claiming to collect money after natural disasters or major events.

Threats and extortion

Scammers will use any means possible to steal your identity or your money—including threatening your life or “hijacking” your computer.

Reduce the risk of receiving scam calls and messages

Here are 12 steps you can take to mitigate the risk of being exposed to suspicious, scammy calls and SMS messages. If you’re not careful, these calls and messages can lead to you becoming a victim of fraudulent schemes.

1. Protect your personal information, and don’t share it with unknown or unsolicited callers.
2. Contact your financial institution immediately if you believe you've lost money to a scammer.
3. Change default PINs and passwords on newly acquired equipment.
4. Select strong PINs and passwords (e.g., not “1234” or “0000” or “password” etc.).
5. Lock devices with secure PINs.
6. Ensure that voicemail PINs are secure.
7. Disable PBX ports and features you don’t use (e.g., remote call forwarding).
8. Change PINs and passwords regularly.
9. Don’t respond to missed calls or SMs from unknown international numbers, unknown Australian numbers or an unknown source.
10. Don’t click on URLs or make return calls to telephone numbers contained in an SM from unknown international numbers, unknown Australian numbers or an unknown source.
11. Block suspicious or unknown Australian numbers or international numbers on devices, and using blocking services or products, where available, on landlines.
12. Allow unknown calls to go to voicemail and then listen to any message left to ascertain if it might be a genuine call.

How to block suspicious or unwanted calls and messages

The ACMA is a statutory authority in Australia that regulates communications and media. Their goal is to create a connected, informed and entertained Australia. They strive to accomplish this goal by maintaining, enforcing and improving regulation to drive industry performance and protect consumers.

The ACMA also manages the Australian Do Not Call Register—a list of individuals who do not want to receive unsolicited communications, such as scam calls or messages. You can register your number here to be added to the list. Registering your number should eliminate the majority of unwanted inbound communications within 30 days.

PCMag suggests manually blocking individual numbers on your mobile device. On an iPhone, select the number from your list of recent calls, press “i” for more information, and scroll down to the “Block this Caller” option. If you have an Android, you’ll approach this in a similar way: select the number, hold your finger down for a few seconds and select the “Block/Report” option.

PCMag also recommends downloading third-party apps—like Hiya, RoboKiller or Truecaller—that are designed to filter out unwanted communications.

If you find that you have received scam calls or SMS messages, here’s what you can do.

First, regardless of the originating number, report the scam to the ACCC using this form. The ACCC cannot assist you in recovering money lost or help you track down a scammer, but they will add the information to their records and take appropriate action.

Second, if the scam call or message originated from a Telnyx number, complete this form. The Telnyx team will review your submission and take appropriate action based on their findings.

Note: Telnyx is a Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider—they offer voice, messaging and other communication services. That means that while it might be possible for someone to send spam or fraudulent messages using a Telnyx number, Telnyx itself does not send messages directly to consumers.

Identity authentication to avoid fraud

If you are a Telnyx customer that uses Australian phone numbers, please read the following notice:

“To protect customers from unauthorized high-risk customer interactions, identity authentication processes will be used to authenticate the identity of the requesting person, prior to the undertaking of a high-risk customer transaction***. In the event a customer suspects that their telecommunications service or account has been subject to fraud, the customer should immediately report the activity to their carriage service provider and their financial services provider.”

If you use Telnyx for communications in Australia, Telnyx is your carriage service provider: if you suspect fraud, please report it using this form.

If you are a Telnyx customer that uses Australian mobile phone numbers, please read the following notice:

“To protect customers from unauthorized ports, an additional identity verification process will be used to verify the identity of the person making a porting request prior to the mobile service number being ported. In the event a customer suspects that their mobile service number has been fraudulently ported, they should immediately report the activity to the Australian Federal Police or the relevant State or Territory Police and government services that support customers whose mobile service number is the subject of an unauthorized port. (Note: At the time of making this industry standard, these kinds of services included Scamwatch and IDCARE.)”

If you have questions about these notices, please contact our support team.

*** A high-risk customer transaction occurs when an action may result in one or more of the following:

• A customer losing access to the customer’s telecommunications service
• A change to a customer’s personal information, business information or account security information held by the carriage service provider relating to the customer’s account;
• Adding or removing a person as a customer’s authorized representative
• Disclosure to the requesting person of a customer’s personal information, business information or account security information held by the carriage service provider relating to the customer’s account
• An additional ongoing, or a large one-off charge being applied to a customer’s account (Note: a carriage service provider should determine whether a charge is a large one-off charge with reference to the usual pattern of charges on a customer’s account. For example, a one-off charge of $200 may qualify as a large one-off charge for a customer with a regular monthly charge of $15.)

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