From ACCC Scamwatch - 10/6/2021

I'm posting the full email this time, usually I only post about half, which is all that's necessary most of the time for these ACCC warnings. However, this one should be of particular interest to the left-wing globalist progressive posters here on Ozpol. It's about culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), people with disability, and Indigenous Australians. Chinese Mandarin speakers are targeted as well. Of course, all of us should be concerned about the millions being lost to scammers

CALD community lose $22 million to scams in 2020, reports from Indigenous Australians up by 25 per cent

Last year scammers stole close to $34 million collectively from people who identified as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), people with disability, and Indigenous Australians.

Figures from the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report released earlier this week shows losses to the CALD community represented a 60 per cent increase compared to 2019, across 11,700 reports.

“Last year we saw a big increase in losses to scams affecting culturally and linguistically diverse communities,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“Some members of CALD communities suffered higher losses on average than the overall community, accounting for one in every eight dollars lost.”

“Unfortunately, scheming scammers try to target people who by virtue of their background, disadvantage, language skills or disability may experience vulnerability, and be more likely to fall for their tricks,” Ms Rickard said.

Investment scams were responsible for $6.3 million in losses, the most costly type of scam for the CALD community.

This was followed by threat based scams, and people from CALD communities lost $6 million to these scams up 248 per cent from 2019.

The Chinese authority scam is a common threat based scam which cost people from the CALD community $4.3 million last year.

These scammers impersonate Chinese authorities and accuse their victims of committing a crime, such as sending a parcel with illegal goods like fake credit cards, and threaten them with deportation or arrest unless they paid money or provided their personal information.

“We received over 2,000 reports about Chinese authority scams in total last year with $7 million lost, and almost a quarter of these were from people with a CALD background,” Ms Rickard said.

“This shows that these scams continued to disproportionately target Mandarin speakers in Australia.”

Other threat based scams involved scammers impersonating Australian government departments such as the Australian Tax Office saying you will be arrested for unpaid tax and the Department of Home Affairs threatening to arrest you and have you deported.

I received three phone calls the day before yesterday, and one yesterday

They were about an Ebay purchase costing "X" amount of dollars. Aussie female voice, not the usual Indian voice

I hung up. I know exactly what I've purchased on Ebay and the costs. The cost she said didn't match anything I've purchased lately. I would have hung up anyway, I've never received phone calls about Ebay items before this, in the 15 years I've been on Ebay ... and the young lady failed to introduce herself nor did she say who she was working for at the beginning of her "automated" sounding spiel

She started off with: "Hi, you have just purchased an item on Ebay worth (so many dollars) .... that's where I hung up   

ACCC Scamwatch - 24/8/21

Australians lose over $70 million to bogus investment opportunities

Dear radar subscriber,




The unwary and their money are soon parted

UnSubRocky wrote on Jun 12^th, 2021 at 12:02pm:


Same thing. This time Guam.

I had some scammer sending text messages about an expensive gift I had bought. There was a problem, just click on this nice link and the problem will be fixed. Quite persistent little scammer too, I even got a “Your gift is being returned to the warehouse” text with yet another link to be clicked.

I had not bought anything when I started getting those texts so easy to just delete the texts but with more people buying more online I am sure the scam will be lucrative for the damn scammer.

latest scam doing the rounds is some demented unemployed  fat greek woman living in a housing commission flat pretending she's a millionaire property guru with a new kid born every two years

ACCC Scamwatch  -  22/11/2021





Dear radar subscriber,

Australians have already lost about $12.9 million to online shopping including classifieds scams so far this year, and the ACCC is urging consumers to watch out for dodgy deals as pre-holiday sales approach.

Scamwatch has received over 26,000 reports of online shopping scams, more than the total reported through all of 2020. This is consistent with global trends from 2020 as more people shop online during the pandemic.

“This is a very busy time of year, and scammers often try to take advantage of unsuspecting shoppers rushing to organise gifts,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“People are often searching for the best deals online, especially in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, so it’s easy to be caught off guard and fall for a scam.”

In an online shopping scam, scammers create realistic looking fake online stores selling items at heavily discounted prices, however the items are fake, or never delivered to buyers.

Scammers have also created fake stores on social media platforms or post fake ads on legitimate classifieds websites. They may request payment or offer discounts for payments made through direct bank transfers or cryptocurrency.

“Before you buy, it’s important to be aware of the possibility of scams. While some scammers try to make online stores look legitimate by requesting payment via PayPal or credit card, always double check that the real PayPal platform is being used. Be suspicious of too good to be true offers and any sellers that ask you to pay by bank transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency,” Ms Rickard said.

“Research the seller and make sure you know who you are buying from. Search online for the product or company name, plus “complaint” or “scam” to see what other people are saying. If you are buying from a social networking site, check the seller’s history and read reviews from other people who have dealt with them.”

“When you’re paying, avoid arrangements that ask for up-front payment via bank transfer, or payment through digital currency, like Bitcoin. Always try to use a secure payment service such as PayPal or credit card transaction,” Ms Rickard said.

If you’re waiting for your parcel, remember that scammers also take advantage of people expecting deliveries.

“Australia Post and other parcel delivery companies will never email, call or text you asking for personal or financial information or a payment. Many delivery companies have apps where you can track your parcels rather than clicking on links in messages or emails,” Ms Rickard said.

Losses to online shopping scams are spread across most age groups, but people aged 25-34 lost the most money, at $2.4 million.



I got a fake PayPay one four days ago making out I won a $500 PayPay gift card

I have had two anonymous texts on my iPhone that I was “featured in a video” with the link provided. Of course—I did not click on the link.