At a glance
A scam is a common way cybercriminals gain access to online accounts.
They may contact you by email, text, phone or social media to steal your money or personal information. Always check who you’re communicating with before giving them information.
If you think they’re a scammer, stop all contact immediately. Recover by changing your passwords, using antivirus software and reporting it to the correct authorities.
Emergency help: If there is an immediate threat to life or risk of harm, call 000.
Scams explained
Scams can happen to anyone, at any time. They are a common way cybercriminals gain access to online accounts.
A scammer may contact you by email, text, phone or social media. They can pretend to be a trusted person or organisation. They will often try to:
- steal your passwords
- access your computer
- trick you into performing specific actions to achieve their goals.
Learn more about scams.
Signs you may be affected
Someone may be trying to scam you if you:
- receive messages marked 'unverified’
- are contacted from email addresses that appear wrong or misspelled
- receive messages that say ’Dear customer‘ instead of your name
- notice web addresses that may be slightly different, such as using .com instead of .gov
- receive unexpected links or attachments
- notice your device is acting strangely, running slow or lagging
- are told that someone is pretending to be you.
Scammers can target you in different ways. How they affect you depends on what information you’ve given them. If something feels weird, off or too good to be true, then it’s probably a scam.
If this is happening now
You can reduce harm by acting quickly.
Make a record of what has happened, including:
- what happened
- when it happened
- who contacted you
- any information you received or shared
- the platform it happened on (such as social media or email)
- how you responded.
What you should do next depends on the type of information you shared with the scammer.
If you’ve been scammed and lost money
- Immediately report the transaction(s) to your bank or financial institution.
- Stop all communication with the scammers.
- Submit a report to us and report the scam to the platform they used to contact you.
- Change your passwords to secure your online accounts.
If you think a scammer has stolen your personal information
- Contact your financial institution immediately to secure your accounts.
- Contact any other services that uses your personal identity documents, such as the Australian Taxation Office or Services Australia.
- Submit a report to us.
- Change your passwords to all key accounts, including, personal, social and financial accounts.
- Contact a credit reporting agency to check for unauthorised accounts or credit applications in your name, such as IDCARE.
If a scammer targeted you but you didn’t give them details or money
- Report the scam to National Anti-Scam Centre’s ScamWatch.
- Report the scam to the platform they used to contact you.
- Uninstall any programs or software you may have installed. This could be from links or instructions from the scammer.
- Scan for malware with antivirus software.
What to do next
Take these extra steps to reduce the impact of a scam.
- If a scammer is impersonating an Australian business, contact the fair-trading organisation in your state or territory.
- If you received a scam message on a work laptop or phone, contact your IT department.
Contact your financial institution
If you’ve sent money to a scammer, contact your bank or credit union immediately. They may be able to close your account or stop a transaction. Make sure you call them using the official phone number on their website.
Secure your accounts
Check your account activity for transactions, messages and changes you don’t recognise. You should also review your login history for unfamiliar devices or locations.
To reduce the risk of unauthorised access, you can:
- use passkeys when available as they are a more secure way to log in to your online accounts than using passwords
- use strong, unique passwords for each account
- turn on multi-factor authentication.
Be aware of other scams and threats
If you’ve lost money, don’t trust third parties that offer to recover it for you. This is a common tactic used by scammers to steal more money from you.
How to get help and report
It’s important to record what happened and report the incident to the appropriate authorities.
Submit a report to us
If you’ve lost money or shared personal information through an online scam, submit a report to us. This is considered a cybercrime.
We will send your report to the police for review. While they may not be able to respond to every report, the information you provide helps support investigations.
Report online scams to ScamWatch
For online scams, report them to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s ScamWatch. Your report helps to warn people about current scams and disrupt them where possible. You’ll need to provide details of the scam, such as a screenshot or text of the email or text.
Report scams and identity theft
If someone has stolen your personal or business identity you must report it to the Australian Taxation Office.
You can also contact Services Australia Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk.
Services Australia can provide support if you’ve opened links from someone pretending to be from myGov, Medicare, Centrelink or Child Support.
Report data breaches to IDCARE
If your information is at risk from a data breach, contact IDCARE. They’re a national identity and cyber support service for individuals and organisations.
Report financial misconduct to Australian Securities and Investments Commission
To report financial misconduct, such as superannuation and crypto-asset scams, contact the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. They are the national corporate regulator.
If you want to talk to someone, call our hotline on 1300 CYBER1 (1300 292 371). We’re available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Stay protected
Learn more about how to stay protected through our personal cyber security handbook.