What to do if you’re a victim of a text or SMS scam
What to do if you’re a victim of a text or SMS scam
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In this activity, you’ll find out what to do if you suspect you’ve become a victim of a text or SMS scam. You’ll find out how and where to report the scam, and the best ways to limit how much damage the scam may cause.
The most important thing to remember is don’t panic, and don’t feel embarrassed. It is very easy to accidentally tap the wrong link, and scams can be very sophisticated and good at fooling you into thinking they are legitimate.
Start activityUnderstanding what text and SMS scammers want
Text and SMS scammers want to access your money, make purchases in your name using your credit card, and steal your personal information to sell over the internet or perpetrate more scams.
If you think you’ve been scammed, it’s important to act immediately to protect your finances and personal information.
Contact financial institutions
Text and SMS scams are common, and your financial institutions have fraud prevention departments to help you protect your money.
If you suspect you’ve been scammed, you should contact your bank immediately and ask for the fraud department. You’ll be guided through the steps you need to take to secure your finances, including changing access codes and cancelling and reissuing any credit card or ATM cards.
eSafety tip
Because text and SMS scams target millions of random people at once, banks are often aware of new scams that try to use the bank’s own logos and designs. Each time you use your banking app or banking website, keep an eye out for announcements about scams. These are usually at the top of the screen and say something like scam alert.
Scammers target your most important passwords
Text and SMS scammers send you a link or a phone number, that they will use to try to get you to accidentally tell them your most important passwords, such as the password to your main email, or for accounts such as Apple ID or a Microsoft account.
These passwords can give scammers access to your other accounts, because they can use your email to pretend to be you.
eSafety tip
A scammer will use your password to try and access all your online accounts, but you can reduce risk by having a unique password for each account. Multiple secure passwords are hard to create and remember, but the password manager in your web browser can generate and store them for you. Common browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Edge, Bing and Firefox have a password manager feature.
You can learn more about passwords in the Managing passwords course.
Change your most important passwords
If you think a scammer might have your password you should immediately change it. To be extra safe, you should change your main email account password, and computer account password, passcode, or PIN, even if you didn’t use the account when you visited a scam web page or clicked a link in a text message.
You can learn more about securing your accounts and devices at the Australian Signals Directorate website.
Contact IDCARE to protect or recover your identity
Some text and SMS scams aim to steal your identity and pose as you to commit fraud. You can get help recovering a stolen identity from Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service IDCARE.
Visit the IDCARE website at www.idcare.org and click the Get Help for Individuals button or call IDCARE on 1800 595 160.
Apply for a Commonwealth Victims’ Certificate
Depending on the nature of the scam, you might become eligible for a Commonwealth Victim’s Certificate. This is documentation you can present to a government agency, financial institution, or credit agency, to help any claims you might need to make that you’ve been a victim of an identity crime.
Report the scam to Scamwatch
If it turns out you’ve been the victim of a scam message, you should report it to the ACCC’s Scamwatch Report a scam service. This web page includes a form you can fill out and provides links and information on how to get help.
eSafety tip
Unfortunately, it’s almost never possible to recover money stolen by a scammer, and very difficult to track down and prosecute the scammer themselves as they are often overseas. It’s more important to act quickly to protect your identity and money from further theft.
Well done!
This is the end of the What to do if you’re the victim of a text or SMS scam 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 Text or SMS scams course.
