“So many non-technical people will fall for this”: New myGov scam that looks real
Australians are being urged to be especially cautious of a new online myGov scam that purports to offer hundreds of dollars in tax refunds – and once you click through, the interfaces are so expertly copied that even highly vigilant scam experts are worried people will be taken in, and could potentially lose all their savings.
The email, once it drops in your inbox, will inform you of an outstanding myGov refund, and will appear to genuinely be from the government agency.
Email security software company MailGuard raised the alarm this week when it intercepted one of the suspect messages.
Once you click through, you’ll be asked to enter login details and billing info. “These details will again be stolen by the criminal and will likely be used for their personal financial gain or sold on the dark web,” MailGuard warns.
Space, software and politics expert @oferzelig deliberately went through all the steps to find out what happens, and then published the very disturbing results on Twitter.
“A new ‘You have a message from myGov’ scam. I entered the link using a safe sandbox as I was curious,” he wrote.
“They mimicked all the major Aussie banks' login pages, the bastards. So many non-technical people will fall for this, unfortunately 😢”
A new "You have a message from myGov" scam. I entered the link using a safe sandbox as I was curious.
They mimicked all the major Aussie banks' login pages, the bastards.
So many non-technical people will fall for this, unfortunately 😢@troyhunt pic.twitter.com/ZJ25x9XuoZ
— 𝓞𝓯𝓮𝓻 𝓩𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓰 🚀💻 🇦🇺 🇮🇱 (@oferzelig) January 3, 2023
Services Australia, which delivers myGov, is aware of the scam and urged Australians to be on the alert. “We will never send you an email or SMS with a hyperlink directing you to sign in to your myGov account,” it says.
“If you get an email like this, don’t open any links, download attachments or respond.
“We’ll never ask you to open a link or a file attached to an email.”
“When you are signed in to myGov, the messages in your myGov Inbox are secure. It’s safe to open links included in myGov Inbox messages,” it says.
Check out all of the images below to see just how convincing the fake pages are – and please be extra cautious!
Images: Twitter