At Queensland Country, your financial wellbeing is at the forefront of everything we do.
We are committed to helping protect our Members from fraud and scams. When you are impacted by financial crime, it impacts us too. We do not want to see our Members fall victim to fraud and scams.
Despite increased awareness of financial crime, each year thousands of hard-working Australians lose millions of dollars to this lucrative illegal industry.
With scams in particular on the rise, we are encouraging all of our Members to STOP, THINK and REMEMBER:
If you think you may have been affected by a scam, report it to your local branch or our Contact Centre on 1800 075 078 immediately so we can take steps to protect your accounts further. You should also report it to your local police and phone the ACCC Info Centre direct on 1300 302 502 during normal business hours to report the scam.
Before you act, remember we will never:
Be wary of emails appearing to be from your bank, Australian Tax Office, PayPal and others requesting you enter your details to be eligible for a refund or to reset your account after a hacking attempt. Navigate to your account the way you normally would, not from the link in the email, and contact your branch, the ATO or PayPal to verify its authenticity.
As the number of scams rise, scammers also become more sophisticated in the ways they contact people, and can often impersonate a person or business for weeks, months or even years to defraud a victim of their hard earned money, or to turn an unwitting victim into a mule. Scams are also constantly changing, so it's important to be vigilant.
Knowing about the different types of scams can help you stay alert and know the signs. Take a look at the most common types of scams:
Romance Scams (or dating scams), generally occur after the scammer creates a fake profile on popular dating sites and social media pages, for the purpose of creating a “love” interest for the victim. These types of scams often run over a longer period of time to other scam types and involve the scammer gaining the victims affections and attention, prior to any funds being requested. It is common for the victim to never meet the scammer, however more recent trends indicate there is sometimes the use of an additional 3rd party, who will meet the victim in person and act as the “partner”, to make the liaison seem even more legitimate.
The scammer will generally pose as either the buyer or seller on trading platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, for the sole purpose of deceiving the victim out of money or goods they are interested in buying or selling themselves. Also be mindful of more recent buying and selling scams that may include the use of AI generated pictures, for products that do not exist at all. These may be lower in price than expected, again bringing to light if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Investment scams are becoming one of the most common types of scams within the industry. Today's investment scams often involve the use of cryptocurrency as the investment source, however investment scams are not limited to this. There may be requests to invest in a fake business, or money paid to the scammer is for a legitimate business however the scammer has funds transferred to themselves instead. The scammer may even claim to work for a legitimate company, however may not be an employee at all.
Commonly called lottery or inheritance scams, these types of scams see the victim provided notice that they have “won money” or are entitled to funds they were not expecting. Scammers may pose as long-lost family members or employees of a competition company such as travel or other miscellaneous prize companies. The options are fairly broad for scammers to use when it comes to claiming the victim is about to gain additional funds into their account.
Gaining more media attention in recent years, messaging scams are commonly completed through social media messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, however other messaging platforms may be used. In 2023, many Australians fell victim to the “Hi Mum/Dad” scam, with the scammers posing as children of the victim for the purpose of gaining funds as quickly as possible.
Members should be vigilant in identifying if they are receiving messages from unknown third parties and also be aware of how messages are written eg: spelling mistakes, doesn't sound like a natural conversation, number is unknown etc.
Employment, or job scams as they are commonly called, are typically used by scammers to often turn victims into unknowing mules. These scams may see the job description show limited detail, contact details of the “employer” may not be legitimate business contact information (eg: use of general emails such as @gmail.com, @hotmail.com), contact from the scammer may also be outside of normal business hours. The promise of making money (the “job”) via a fee being paid to the victim in return for the victim sending funds to another account may be discussed.
Scammers will often claim to be from companies such as telcos, internet providers or the bank, for the purpose of stating there may be something wrong with the computer/internet banking. They will then ask the victim to download a remote access tool like AnyDesk or Teamviewer (although others may be used), so they can view or take over the internet banking session, also at times convincing the victim to provide them a one-time password to gain this access. Once they are in control, remote access scams often see the victims bank account completely emptied, or the victim is coerced into transferring the money themselves.
These scams generally target businesses, often small businesses with less sophisticated technology or limited staffing resources. The scammers often pose as a high-ranking employee (such as CEO, Manager or Accounts Payable) so any request for funds appear more legitimate but are then transferred to the scammer using fake invoices. Members should always check the correct details are on invoices or emails received, via a phone call to the company, prior to making any payments for services.
Malicious Software, or Malware, are tools and scripts used by cybercriminals (“hackers”), to gain access to the victims personal devices and then gain access to personal information such as bank accounts or identity details, or disrupt, destroy or steal confidential data or funds. Common types of Malware include Trojans, worms, ransomware, spyware and other computer viruses.
Also classed as a cybercrime, phishing involves the use of different communication methods such as emails or text messages (“smishing”) in order for the victim to unknowingly click on links that are then forwarded to fake websites or forms, that may appear legitimate, in order for the perpetrator to gain personal information such as internet banking or card details (passwords, card numbers, CCV details etc). These are then used by fraudsters for additional fraudulent transactions and potential loss to the Member.