Protect yourself from scams

Romance scammers hide behind fake online profiles which are designed to grab your attention. They gain your trust over time. Once they have this, they’ll try to manipulate you into believing they have health issues, family problems, travel expenses or other personal issues. They’ll usually ask for financial assistance or gifts and can be very convincing. It can be easy to believe they’re genuine because they’ve taken a long time to build a relationship with you.

Warning signs

• Fast and intense declarations of love
• A preference to communicate through email or instant messaging rather than an official dating platform
• A change from affection to desperation or threats if you don’t meet their requests
• They’ll usually make a small request first to test if you’ll comply with a bigger request later
• Preying on a vulnerability such as isolation, age or language barrier.

Job scams aim to get your attention with a lucrative job opportunity that requires little effort and guarantees employment – for a fee. Once you pay the fee, you might not get any job offers or won’t be paid for the work you complete. Other job scams could put you at risk of breaking the law. A scammer might ask you to accept money into your bank account before moving it to another account (and paying you for allowing this). Criminals use this method to illegally move and launder money, by making you a ‘money mule'.

Warning signs

• You need to pay an upfront fee to get access to the job opportunity
• The opportunity might be to ‘work from home’ and get paid a ‘guaranteed’ income
• You don’t need to be interviewed to qualify for the job
• You’ve been contacted by someone you don’t know about the opportunity
• You’re asked to accept money into your account and then forward it elsewhere.

Scammers sometimes try to target people buying things online, but there are some things to look out for to avoid falling victim to these scams – learn more.

It’s important to defend your business from scams. Scammers can try to trick you or your staff to get your business’ information or money. Educating your staff about common scams so they can recognise and report them can save your business from potentially costly mistakes.

Important tips

• If a supplier wants to change their bank details, confirm them with a phone call before making payments to the new account. Their emails could have been hacked
• Before approving payments in Online Business Banking, carefully review details to make sure the payment is going to the intended recipient – especially if you see a message that a payment has been changed since it was created
• Email phishing is common for businesses. It’s important to educate your staff about these
• Check all staff email requests to change bank details with the staff member by phone or in person – the details could be a scammer’s
• Warn staff not to share their Online Business Banking (OBB) login details
• Each employee needing OBB access should have their own login details.

Warning signs

• Requests asking you to urgently verify your account or pay a bill or fine
• Emails appearing as though they’re from suppliers asking for payment to a new account.

Safe and Savvy with Bankwest – a guide to preventing elder abuse (PDF)