The year has seen a fresh start for fraudsters and scam artists, seeing another spike in COVID-19 scams and text-based cons.
ACM has compiled a list of current scams identified on sites such as scamwatch.gov.au, cyber.gov.au and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s website dedicated to informing people about fraudulent and dishonest activities.
Tip for spotting a romance scam
RESEARCH: A reverse image search may help in identifying potential scams.
- Scamwatch has offered advice to help identify a romance scammer, online shopping scam or even a puppy scam.
- Scammers steal photographs of real people to create realistic profiles.
- Reverse image searches of profile pictures can help you spot the difference between a genuine and a fake profile – it can also confirm if the image has been used before in a scam.
- You can use Google’s reverse online image search of photos, and if the suspect profile photo appears under different names, you may have caught yourself a scammer.
- On a computer or device: open a web browser, like Chrome or Firefox then go to Google Images. Click Search by image, click ‘upload an image’ and Choose File or Browse. Select a picture from your computer Click Open or Choose.
- Visit Google Search Help for more advice on doing an online reverse image search.
Tradie scams doing the rounds
- Scammers aren’t always online, Scamwatch is urging people to be aware of fake tradies that may come knocking on your door.
- Fake tradies will often high-pressure sales tactics…