How to protect yourself from scammers online

While social media is used everyday by millions of Australians to connect with friends or promote their businesses, it can be the perfect hunting ground for scammers to steal your identity and money.

But sometimes, no matter how secure you think your online accounts are, hackers can still break through and take control of your personal information.

So how can you protect yourself and reduce the risk of becoming the victim of an online attack?

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For Alyce Gorgievski, she had worked tirelessly to build their business 'Kombi Club', amassing over 40,000 followers on Instagram.

But when the 36-year-old received a fake email pretending to offer her a blue tick verification, that was all it took to see everything come undone.

"My heart sunk straight away," Alyce told Today.

"I got a WhatsApp message 'we've got your account, if you want it back you have to pay us 500 Bitcoin.' We had been hit so far with COVID-19, being shut for nearly two years, so to lose our account we had worked on for so many years, it was heartbreaking."

Instagram account takeovers have been a big problem this year for Australian users, but while measures are in place to try and enhance security measures, once an account has been taken over it can be difficult to get it back.

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If you have ever wondered why a scammer would target you, technically they are not.

They are targeting millions of Australians every second hoping that someone will fall for the scam and click a dodgy link.

It could be a text message about a missing item in the post or an email about updating your bank details, scammers are ruthless with the tactics they'll use.

Today tech expert Trevor Long said a big thing people don't understand is the identity fraud can start the second you type in your address or date of birth.

"They will steal your identity and take your money," he said.

"It doesn't matter if it's Facebook, Optus or Telstra, whatever the scam is, Australia Post, they are trying to get information from you."

To reduce the chance of being caught out, Trevor said a strong password and two-factor verification is a must.

For added browser protection you can also get software like Trend Micro internet security, Norton Safe Web or McAfee Safe Connect for your browser.

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