Age Pensioners are being warned to be on the lookout for a new scam using fake social media posts and websites offering a ‘bonus payment’.
Services Australia, the government department that oversees Centrelink, has issued a stark and urgent warning to those receiving an Age Pension, explaining that many ‘unofficial websites’ and social media posts have been sharing misleading information about a bonus $1800 payment.
The posts encourage users to click a link to claim their payment, but are instead taken to false websites that are then used to steal their personal info.
“They’re currently targeting older Australians by falsely saying there’s a bonus payment coming for people on Age Pension,” a Services Australia spokesperson told NCA Newswire.
“People are sharing these websites on social media, thinking the information is real. If the website URL doesn’t end in ‘.gov.au’ then it isn’t an official government website. It could be a scam.”
Services Australia says it has been aware of this new scam for around two months now. The warning comes as scam activity in Australia, particularly aimed at older people, reaches fever pitch.
Figures released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) show Aussies aged 65 and over lost $120 million to scams in 2023, up 13 per cent on the year before.
Social media scams are also becoming more prevalent, with Aussies losing around $95 million last year, mainly through Facebook and messaging platform WhatsApp.
Anti-scam budget measures
In response to the rising threat of scams, the federal government announced a number of anti-scam measures last week in the 2024-25 Federal Budget. They will commit $67.5 million over four years starting from next financial year, and $8.6 million per year ongoing after that, to fighting scammers.
The money will be used to combat online fraud through the introduction of a new Scams Code Framework that will lay out best practice industry codes for various institutions to follow.
The mandatory codes will initially target telcos, banks and digital platforms relating to social media, paid search engine advertising and direct messaging.
Aussies still falling for it
The National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC), set up last year in response to rising fraud numbers, has just released its third quarterly report showing scam losses have continued to rise in the first quarter of 2024.
In just the first three months of the year, Australians have lost a staggering $345.6 million to scams, making more than 100,000 reports to scam monitoring groups.
Text messages, emails and phone calls were the top three methods used by scammers and the number of reports mentioning these methods was higher this quarter compared to the previous quarter.
While fake payment and billing scams keep making the headlines, it’s actually investment scams that cause the highest financial losses, with the NASC recording $47.1 million in investment scam losses this quarter.
Phishing scams, of which this current Age Pension scam is one, were again the most reported type of scam for the quarter, however reported losses were actually down by 5.5 per cent.
Have you received any suspicious texts or emails? Do you think you could spot a scam in front of you? Let us know in the comments section below.
I have seen that age pension bonus a few times on Facebook but as I always say don’t click on anything on Facebook as it’s nearly all scams.
Here is another one this time Coles. I got this text this morning….
coles: The remaining points have not been used for a long time to avoid expiration. I hope you take action soon. https://coles.ausview.info/3Ie5t
To avoid any confusion the link in my previous post is fake and you could lose everything if you click on it. NEVER click on this sort of a link.
I have received the same scam post as the above contributor David, I’ve received these sorts of scams in sms messages as well as social media, I report them every time, I admit to not being very savvy with technology, but if the government has the power to tell tech companies what they are allowed to show on platforms like Facebook etc, why can’t they stop these fake posts and sms messages, I must have reported 100s of scam messages usually phishing scams over the years, I’ve installed spam blockers that sometimes work, one scammer Dylan Whitehouse ( doubt it’s a real name ) has been sending phishing emails for years the US government traced the account to a college and managed to shut it down for a while but notice it’s back again.
Something I’ve noticed is if I’m expecting a package I will start receiving scam emails from dodgy sites, I thought my email address had been compromised so I changed my email nothing changed, it’s seems it’s up to ourselves to be vigilant at all times, technology can sure be a help but I sometimes wonder if it’s worthwhile.
I have seen these Age Pension posts, and the Coles Text Message, which I reported as I do not have a Coles Account.
Then :-
I recently received an email perporting to be from myGov, the text is below.
=================================================
The from email address:- myGov
content:-
You have a new message in your myGov inbox
Click mygovauth.net to view
Regards, myGov team.
=================================================
It has been reported.
The url is registered to an entity in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
I knew it was a scam because it ended up in my inbox and not in myGov folder.
As others have said, DO NOT FOLLOW ANY URL’s IN ANY WEBPAGE, TEXT MESSAGE OR EMAIL , unless you can identify the source as known and reliable !!