Fraud awareness

Scammers are becoming cleverer in their attempt to steal your money and belongings.

The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce was established in June 2005 to provide a whole of Government approach to raising awareness about consumer fraud. The Taskforce website www.scamwatch.gov.au provides information on scams and what to look out for.

Phishing

"Phishing" is a technique used to gain personal information for purposes of identity theft, using fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses or financial institutions.

Phishing-Don't take the bait! Fact sheet

Spam

Spam is the common term for electronic 'junk mail' – unwanted commercial electronic messages. There is currently legislation in Australia to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

More information on spam

Spyware

Spyware is software that is installed on a computing device that takes information from it without the consent or knowledge of the user, and gives that information to a third party.

More information on spyware

Links

• Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is responsible for enforcing the Spam Act 2003. ACMA has a developed an online tool to report spam.
• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) provides advice about scams and how to report them.
• Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) is responsible for investigating high tech crime in Australia.
• Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) investigates scams relating to financial services such as phishing

• Document ID: 36374 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 7:41pm