Report investment scams and update your details

Protect your finances

Investment scams usually involve voluntarily paying the scammer, rather than the scammer hacking or accessing your finances directly.

However, you should always secure your finances just in case, especially if you installed any software provided by the scammers or used a scam website.

Try to get payments reversed

If you catch the scam early, you should immediately contact your bank to see if it’s possible to reverse any payments you’ve made.

Unfortunately, scammers are usually careful to use payment systems or methods that are very difficult if not impossible to reverse, but it’s always worth a try.

What to do if your superannuation is involved

If the scammer convinced you to access your superannuation early or arrange the payment of a lump sum, you should contact your superannuation provider immediately and report the scam.

You should also make sure you are the only person who can access your superannuation account.

Call your superannuation provider and ask for the scam department, and they will help you with the steps you need to take to protect your super.

Change your passwords and other codes

Even if you don’t think the scammers have found out your password or accessed any of your accounts, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

You should change your banking passwords, PINs, and contact your credit card issuer to see if they recommend cancelling and reissuing your cards.

It’s safest to change your main email password, social media passwords, and passwords to any other accounts that hold personal information, too.

Report the scam

You should report the scam on the Scamwatch web site at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam This will help the ACCC investigate this scam and others like it, and allow them to issue warnings.

You can also report the scam as a cybercrime at https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/report.

Cease contact with the scammer

Investment scams often involve personal contact with the scammer, usually via a mobile phone call. If you suspect a scam, you should cease all contact with the scammer immediately and refuse to take any more of their calls.

Avoid investment seminars

You should never attend an investment seminar, as these scams pressure you to pay more and more money for materials and other useless things. If you’ve paid an attendance fee, just write off that cost or try to reverse the payment. However, it can be difficult to recover this money as scammers prefer payment methods that are hard to track and reverse.

Well done!

This is the end of the Report an investment scam and update your details activity. You’ve learned how to act quickly to protect yourself from the scammer and where to report the scam.

If you're a registered user, continue on to complete the quiz for this course. If you're not registered, this is the end of the Investment scams course.