Navigation
Login
Resource Centre
Click the links below for some useful tips and information:
- What to do if you have had your identity stolen
- Tips to detect an Online Dating Scam
- Identifying fraudulent "phishing" email
- Five ways to catch a "Phish"
- Investment Scams
What to do if you have had your identity stolen
If you think someone has stolen your identity and is committing crimes in your name, you should:
Step 1 - File a report with your local police department immediately.
Ask for a copy of the police report as banks and financial institutions will want to see it.
Step 2 - Contact your bank or financial institution
Tell your bank, credit provider or the relevant company what has happened. If any accounts have been opened with your stolen details, ask for them to be closed or cancelled. You may need to ask them to set you up new accounts and PINs.
Step 3 - Inform the relevant government agency or refer to your local authority.
If your driver's licence, passport, citizenship papers, healthcare card, birth, marriage and change of name certificates, tax file number, social security number, superannuation or pension details have been stolen, let the relevant agency know.
Step 4 - Place a fraud alert and get your credit report
You should tell the credit reporting agency that you have been a victim of identity theft so they can note it in your file. Check your credit report to see what companies have checked your credit history recently, and let them know not to authorise any new accounts in your name.
This list is not exhaustive. These are only some of the first few steps. Identity theft can be devastating, both financially and emotionally. Follow the above guidelines to protect yourself and always alert the authorities if you suspect your details have been stolen or are being misused.
Tips to detect an Online Dating Scam
Dating and Romance scams can be very elaborate hoaxes, sometimes taking years to develop and run by experienced criminal syndicates. Fraudsters often approach their victims on legitimate dating websites before attempting to move the ‘relationship’ away from the safeguards that these sites put in place; communicating through other methods such as email, where they can more easily manipulate victims. The fraudsters develop a strong connection with the victim before asking for money to help cover costs associated with a supposed illness, injury, family crisis, travel costs or to pursue a business or investment opportunity.
Any of the following behaviours should raise concerns that the person you are interacting with is a fraudster:
- Quickly wanting to move off the dating site and to personal email or phone number.
- Have poor grammar and spelling. They may use instant messaging or TTY services for the deaf to help mask their broken English.
- Watch out for cut and paste profiles. Do an internet search of different elements of the profile, especially images provided by the individual.
- Do not supply additional images of yourself or your family as these can be used by a scammer to scam someone else.
- Never give personal background information as this can be used for identity theft.
- During the first communication, they want to know what you do to earn your living. It tells them if you are a good financial prospect.
- Makes plans to visit you but is then unable to do so because of a tragic event.
- If you suspect you are being scammed, stop contact immediately and report the scammer to the authorities.
Identifying fraudulent "phishing" email
Email scams are a cheap, easy and efficient way for criminals to attempt contact with people and gather personal information or financial details from them.
Keep these things in mind when checking your emails:
- Don't open attachments from people you don't know. If you don't know who sent the email just delete it
- Stop and think before clicking on any hyperlinks or attachments.
- Scan email attachments with security software before opening them.
- Legitimate companies and websites will not ask you to confirm personal details or passwords via email, so do not reply to emails requesting this sort of information.
- Beware of emails that don't address you by name.
- Never post your email address on online forums.
Five Ways to Catch a Phish
Step 1 - Hover.
One common phishing technique is to include links in an email that look like they go to a legitimate website. Upon closer inspection, the link may actually take you to a website that has nothing to do with the company the email is pretending to be from, even though the resulting website may be designed to look exactly the same
Step 2 - Copy and Paste
If you can't see the URL where the links direct when you:
- Hover over them
- Copy and paste the link into a Microsoft Word document
- Right click on the pasted link and select "Edit Hyperlink" from the menu that appears
- Select "Edit Hyperlink" to open a pop-up window which will show the web address to which the link directs.
Step 3 - Investigate the email's properties.
Outlook users who have opened the suspicious email can:
- Go to the "File" tab and select "Properties, a pop-up window will appear
- Refer to the box at the bottom of the window labelled "Internet headers." This box shows the path the email took to reach the end-user
- Look at the originating systems and if they're not from OzForex, Messagelabs or other trusted email blast systems, those are tipoffs that it's a phishing email.
Step 4 - Act on information that you know for sure is trustworthy.
If you have received an email from us regarding a fraud alert, you ought to see if that same fraud alert has been listed on our security page. If you're at all uncertain, please contact our dealing team and always work on information that you have a lot more reason to trust.
Step 5 -The best defence against phishing scams, is to assume the email is untrustworthy and to pursue direct channels to businesses that you trust.
Investment Scams
Investment scams can look and sound believable, with smooth-talking individuals, sophisticated brochures and websites. This can make it hard to tell them apart from genuine investment opportunities. But there are ways to spot and avoid scams.
Research before you invest. Unsolicited emails, message board postings and company news releases should never be used as the sole basis for your investment decisions. Understand a company’s business and its products or services before investing. Do your own research on the company and take the time to seek independent professional or legal advice. Don't rely only on their information to make your decision and do not be pressured to make a quick decision you could regret later.
Be wary of unsolicited offers. A phone call or email 'out of the blue' offering you a not-to-be-missed investment opportunity could be a turning point in your life, but can’t find current financial information about it from independent sources. Be wary if someone recommends foreign or “off-shore” investments. If something goes wrong, it’s harder to find out what happened and to locate money sent abroad.
“Guaranteed returns”. Every investment carries some degree of risk, which is reflected in the rate of return you can expect to receive. If your money is perfectly safe, you’ll most likely get a low return. High returns entail high risks, possibly including a total loss on the investments. It might be an opportunity to invest in shares, with the promise that the returns will be high and the risks to your money are low or non-existent. But generally speaking; the bigger the proposed return, the greater the risk.
Ask the person offering the investment these questions to check their legitimacy:
- What is your name and what company do you represent?
- Who owns your company?
- Does your company have a Financial Services licence and what is the licence number?
- What is your address?
If they try to avoid answering these questions, it is probably a scam. Hang up the phone, do not respond to the email or stop dealing with the person.
Take the time to do your own independent research.