The new way scammers are stealing your cash

Sixty year old Jen considered herself "reasonably okay" with IT when she was almost defrauded.

"I was just sitting at home doing some work when I had a call from someone who purported to be from Apple," Jen recalls. "This person sounded very well-spoken – he said his name was Matthew and he seemed very non-threatening."

"Matthew" told Jen there was a ransomware virus on her computer and that he needed remote access to her Mac to stop it, otherwise hackers would be able to freeze the contents of her computer and demand payment to return it.

"I'm thinking, oh my god, it's terrible. I don't want to have everything frozen – my whole life's on that iMac."

Impersonation scams like this occur a lot and scammers can be very convincing. That's why Jen granted the man on the other end of the line remote access to her computer. At the same time as she was on the call with "Matthew", Jen's 23-year-old daughter began texting her, realised Jen was being scammed, and intercepted to stop the attack. 

"I was very lucky," Jen reflects. "I would say I was moments away from being [scammed]."

Stories like Jen's are not uncommon. In fact, on a different occasion, Jen received a call from a scammer impersonating a tax office official, saying that she was being investigated for tax fraud, and demanding payment to "fix" the situation. 

A new wave of scams

Scams are becoming more sophisticated, with many scammers now using a technique known as ID Spoofing to take impersonation to another level.

"ID Spoofing is a technique where a scammer will use technology to make it appear that an incoming call or text is being received from a legitimate organisation, such as your bank or a government organisation," says James Roberts, General Manager of Group Fraud Management at CommBank. "Anyone using a mobile device is vulnerable to ID Spoofing."

ID Spoofing can involve impersonating trusted organisations by hijacking their phone numbers to make their call or text look more believable. Instead of contacting you from an unknown number or sending a text with tell-tale grammar mistakes or suspicious links, ID Spoofing does a scarily good job of imitating the real thing.

So how can Australians avoid falling victim to ID Spoofing?  

"Keep in mind that banks will never ask you for your security credentials or ask you to transfer money over the phone," says Roberts. 

If you receive a call or text asking for personal or financial information, the first thing you should do is stop. "Take a breath," says Roberts. "Real organisations won't put you under pressure to act instantly."

Sense check what's going on with someone around you – like Jen did with her daughter. Or if you're unsure, hang up on the caller and contact the organisation the message claims to be from via the phone number on their website.

And the good news is that new technology is fighting back against the scammers.

To combat the growing threat of scams, including ID spoofing calls, CommBank has launched in-app caller verification technology through a feature called CallerCheck. It can be used to verify whether incoming calls are actually from us. 

"CallerCheck allows CBA to send a notification to the customer's CommBank app to verify the call is genuinely from the bank and allow the customer to verify their identity in-app, removing the need for customers to provide personal information over the phone," says Roberts.

After her own brush with scammers, Jen advises anyone who receives a similar call to pause before acting. That's what she would do if she's ever in the same position again.

"I wouldn't respond to that phone call. I would say, thanks for the information, hang up, and then if I was concerned about it, I would look up the actual number of the bank or whoever was contacting me, and ring them myself."

But it was a stressful situation that Jen hopes to never repeat. 

"It really took me off guard and it made me feel very vulnerable," she says. "You're sitting in your home and you're doing whatever you're doing, and then, all of a sudden, you're exposed."

To find out more about all the ways CommBank help protect you and also how you can safeguard your info, visit: CommBank Safe.