This year’s Scams Awareness Week (27 November – 1 December) is focused on impersonation scams, how to identify them, what methods there are of impersonation and how to avoid being scammed. Impersonation scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and therefore harder to identify. Impersonation scammers may know or claim to know some information about you and use this to convince you they are legitimate.

What is an impersonation scam?

  • An impersonation scam is where scammers pretend to be trusted businesses, friends or family to steal your money or personal information.
  • Impersonation scammers can reach you on all mediums such as text message, websites, social media, email and phone calls.
  • Scammers often pretend to be government officials, well-known companies, charities, celebrities, law enforcement or even family and friends.

Methods of impersonation

  • Scammers can use technology to make their calls appear to come from a legitimate phone number.
  • Their texts can appear in the same conversation thread as genuine messages from an organisation.
  • Websites for legitimate organisations can be cloned to look like the real thing.
  • Emails can be sent with fake sender addresses to appear to come from trusted sources.
  • Social media profiles can be established using another person or an organisation’s details and images.
  • Documents can be forged to make you think you’re dealing with a real person or business.

Key signs of impersonation scams

  • You receive a message that asks you to click on a link that takes you to a webpage asking for your username, password, or personal information.
  • You are asked to provide personal details or money urgently.
  • An organisation that you think is real, tells you there has been an unauthorised transaction or asks you to confirm a payment that you didn’t make.
  • A business asks you to use a different bank account and BSB from the last payment you made with them.
  • You’re contacted by someone saying they are from a government department or law enforcement, and they threaten you with immediate arrest, deportation, or ask you to pay money.
  • You’re asked to transfer money to an account to ‘keep it safe’ or for ‘further investigation’.
  • A sale, investment or job offer looks too good to be true.

How to avoid Impersonation scams

  • Consumers are urged to ‘Stop, think, protect’.
    • Stop - Don’t give money or personal information to anyone if unsure.
    • Think - Ask yourself could the message or call be fake?
    • Protect - Act quickly if something feels wrong.  How to verify who you’re dealing with?
  • Independently verify who you’re dealing with before you give money or personal information by either:
    • Contacting the person or organisation directly using contact details you’ve found yourself on the organisation’s official website.
    • Accessing the organisations’ secure, authenticated portal or app (never via a link).
  • If someone you know sends a message to say they have a new phone number:
    • Try to call them on the existing number you have for them.
    • Message them on the new number with a question only they would know the answer to. That way you will know if they are who they say they are.
  • Watch out for slight variations in Caller or Sender IDs and web addresses like dots, special characters, or numbers.
  • Do online research of people and organisations who you’ve only dealt with online before paying any money.  Search the name online together with the word ‘scam.’
  • Check for the correct registration details of organisations through registers such as the Moneysmart financial advisors register and the Australian charity register for charities.

If you are a victim of a scam, contact your bank or card provider immediately to report the scam.

To report a scam, go to Scamwatch.gov.au or alternatively, you can also make an official report to the police online.

Find out more information about Scams Awareness Week 2023 at Scamwatch.gov.au.