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Speaker 1: And you would have heard us yesterday talking about some

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Speaker 1: of the scams that people are encountering at the moment.

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Speaker 1: A lot of you getting in contact to let us

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Speaker 1: know that you've been receiving those dodgy text messages that's

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Speaker 1: either telling you you've got a parcel that you need

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Speaker 1: to collect or also sort of telling you that you've

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Speaker 1: got a voicemail and none. I mean, it's riddled with errors,

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Speaker 1: so for a start you're thinking to yourself, where is

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Speaker 1: this come from and why is it being sent to

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Speaker 1: my phone? But joining us in the studio right now

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Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about some of these

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Speaker 1: different scams and things that we need.

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Speaker 2: To be aware of. Is detective for acting seeing this.

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Speaker 1: Sergeant Craig Winderbank from the Northern Territory Police, Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Craig.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Firstly, on these text messages that people are receiving, is

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Speaker 1: it something that's been well reported to you guys.

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Speaker 3: We have heard about it. We haven't had a lot

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Speaker 3: of reports, but we're hearing about a lot of people

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Speaker 3: who are receiving these text messages with links in them

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Speaker 3: that are seen to be going to malicious places.

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Speaker 2: So what do people doing? Look, if you click on it,

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Speaker 2: what's going to happen?

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Speaker 3: It's Unfortunately, these SMS messages with the links in them,

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Speaker 3: if you click on them, there's a whole range of

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Speaker 3: sort of mailware that the offenders can install on your

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Speaker 3: mobile phone, and that could be things like interfering with

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Speaker 3: your online banking, getting your contact lists, stealing personal identifying information,

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Speaker 3: all those sort of things.

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Speaker 1: So what's the advice if you get one of these messages? Honestly,

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Speaker 1: I reckon. I received three of them yesterday alone, so

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Speaker 1: and I know that there's probably other people out there

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Speaker 1: who are in a similar situation.

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Speaker 2: If you get them, do you just ignore them? What

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Speaker 2: do you do?

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Speaker 3: Our best advice is to ignore them, delete them. Certainly,

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Speaker 3: don't click on the links, that's the big, big thing

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Speaker 3: not to do. But yeah, ignore them, delete them and

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Speaker 3: move on. I suspect that there's such a proliferation around

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Speaker 3: Darwin at the moment that a few people have had

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Speaker 3: their contact lists compromise perhaps, and that's letting them get

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Speaker 3: all the contact details of people in Darwin. And that's

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Speaker 3: why we're getting so many SMSs at the moment. But

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Speaker 3: we can't confirm that. But that seems to be what's happening.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So once you click on it, it potentially

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Speaker 1: can get into everybody, sort of get into the contact

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Speaker 1: and then send the message out to everybody in that list.

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Speaker 3: That seems to be how it's spreading out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, that's not good.

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Speaker 1: So the biggest piece of advice to any of our

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Speaker 1: listeners who are receiving those messages do not click on

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Speaker 1: those links.

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Speaker 2: What happens if you have already.

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Speaker 3: So if you have clicked on the link, you need

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Speaker 3: to be careful, practice good online security, make sure your

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Speaker 3: pass words are changed, maybe even reset that device, clear

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Speaker 3: the device's memory and turn it off and on again,

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Speaker 3: or even flash the operating system.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 3: And if you've lost any funds or something like that's

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Speaker 3: happening reported to police through cyber dot gov.

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Speaker 1: Did are you Is there any other sort of scams

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Speaker 1: going around at the moment? We did receive a message

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Speaker 1: or a phone call actually from a listener yesterday who

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Speaker 1: said that he'd noticed a small amount of money had

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Speaker 1: gone out of his bank. I think it was eight

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Speaker 1: dollars to begin with, and then it ended up five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars had gone out got in contact with the bank.

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Speaker 1: They I believe are in the process now of making

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Speaker 1: sure that those funds go back into his account. So

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure how it's sort of happened, but I

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Speaker 1: guess there's always different scams we need to be aware of, isn't.

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Speaker 3: There There's a whole sway that scam going on at

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Speaker 3: the moment, and COVID seems to have caused an increase

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Speaker 3: in it with everyone being online a lot more. We've

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Speaker 3: seen scams where you know, people are the puppy scams,

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Speaker 3: people losing the five ten thousand dollars and things like that,

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Speaker 3: right up to a scam where a person in darwh

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Speaker 3: And recently lost just about a million dollars through something

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Speaker 3: like this. So it's the whole range of it. We've

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Speaker 3: seen businesses losing fifty thousand dollars and that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of activity going on at the moment.

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Speaker 3: We really need to be cautious.

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Speaker 1: And so with those ones where large amounts of being lost,

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Speaker 1: I mean up to a million dollars, Look is it.

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Speaker 1: Are there different things we need to be aware of

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Speaker 1: to keep an eye out for, because I'm assuming that

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Speaker 1: something like that doesn't just happen in one transaction, it's

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Speaker 1: potentially happening over a period of time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely correct. We really need to be cautious

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Speaker 3: with what we come across online. Don't believe what people

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Speaker 3: tell you and take it as gospel truth. You need

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Speaker 3: to be able to research, confirm it's true, speak to them,

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Speaker 3: meet them, those sort of things. Don't trust emails and

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Speaker 3: what people say online.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's another thing that's been raised at different times,

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Speaker 1: and you and I have actually spoken about this before,

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Speaker 1: where you might receive an email that looks like an

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Speaker 1: invoice from what you believe is a legitimate business, you

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Speaker 1: pay that invoice, it's not a legitimate business. Somebody's somehow

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Speaker 1: tapped into your emails and you end up losing that money.

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Speaker 3: Yep, that's absolutely one of the issues we see. We

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Speaker 3: call that a business email compromise. They're quite prolific. We

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Speaker 3: also see the fake tech scams where people ring up

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Speaker 3: pretending to be Telstra or banking firm or something like

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Speaker 3: that and wanting to help you. We see fake investment

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Speaker 3: type things where people are inviting people to invest in

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Speaker 3: these schemes when really it's just an online scam. So

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Speaker 3: these whole sort of sway the things that are taking

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Speaker 3: place at the.

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Speaker 1: Moment, and Craig, do you reckon that there is that

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Speaker 1: increase because of COVID, Like these scammers are sort of

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Speaker 1: getting a bit more elaborate or a bit more creative

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Speaker 1: because they've got more time on their hands, or what's happening.

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Speaker 3: We've definitely seen an increase over the past eighteen to

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Speaker 3: twenty four months. Whether that's because more people have a

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Speaker 3: greater online presence, we're sort of buying more online and

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Speaker 3: things like that, we're not sure, but it's definitely been

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Speaker 3: an increase in that or whether it's just a natural increase.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And so it sounds as though Territorians are definitely

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Speaker 1: we're not immune to it. In fact, by the sounds

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Speaker 1: of it, we've had a few people who have been

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Speaker 1: really badly hit.

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Speaker 3: We certainly have, and looking at on the national picture,

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Speaker 3: our sort of increase is in line with what's happening nationally.

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Speaker 3: It's just a general increase in cybercrime where Australians generally

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Speaker 3: are quite attractive to international offenders in this area and

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Speaker 3: it's unfortunate, but we just need to adjust to it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's one of those really hard ones too.

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Speaker 1: I reckon if you've been scammed, or if somebody's had money,

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Speaker 1: if they've paid money to the wrong encounter, if they've

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Speaker 1: done something and they've been scammed, a lot of the

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Speaker 1: time they don't even want to talk about it publicly

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Speaker 1: because you almost feel a bit silly, even when it's

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Speaker 1: not your fault.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that's something that I've found. I've

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Speaker 3: been in cyber crime for a while now, and one

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Speaker 3: of the things we say to everyone is you shouldn't

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Speaker 3: feel embarrassed about what's happened. The scams these days are

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Speaker 3: so technical and so well developed that they could capture anyone.

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Speaker 3: And it's not the old days of just getting it,

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Speaker 3: you know, the lottery or getting an inheritance. It is

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Speaker 3: really quite complex and the scams are will need to

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Speaker 3: spend a lot of time to spend a lot of

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Speaker 3: time to scam.

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Speaker 1: You astry, Yeah, and Craig, it also sounds like, you know,

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Speaker 1: like really you can't there's a lot that you actually

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Speaker 1: can't trust online. In fact, a large majority, like if

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Speaker 1: you get an email, you want to make sure that

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Speaker 1: it is absolutely from the right person, even when you're

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Speaker 1: paying an invoice. It really seems like it's reached the

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Speaker 1: point where you have to be making those second and

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Speaker 1: third calls before you hand over any kind of money.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. I had to pay an invoice the other

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Speaker 3: day for a driveway work and I rang the person

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Speaker 3: doing the work to confirm their account number before we

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Speaker 3: paid it. I just don't trust what you get in

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Speaker 3: emails anymore. You can't do it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think it's really like it's probably very

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Speaker 1: sound advice for everybody, and all of us probably thinking,

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Speaker 1: oh goodness me, you feel like you can't trust anyone,

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Speaker 1: And I know that that is a bit disappointing to hear.

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Speaker 2: But we don't want to be you know, we don't.

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Speaker 1: Want to end up losing our hard earned cash that

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Speaker 1: we've worked very hard for, paying it out to the

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Speaker 1: wrong person and ending up out of pockash.

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Speaker 3: No. Absolutely, a couple of minutes of checking it and

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Speaker 3: just spending a bit more time might save you an

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Speaker 3: awful lot of money in the long term.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I've just got to question from a caller and

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Speaker 1: it says, why aren't mobile providers like Telstra blocking these numbers?

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Speaker 3: They do try. Unfortunately, the offenders are using a method

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Speaker 3: called colo overstamping, which fakes the number they're coming from,

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Speaker 3: so they're actually potentially calling internationally or whatever else, but

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Speaker 3: the number that's coming up on your phone is a

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Speaker 3: fake number, so it makes it harder for us to

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Speaker 3: trace as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, what about with some of those phone calls

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Speaker 1: that come through? Because I know, even myself, I've received

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Speaker 1: phone calls before thought, you know, like, and they've said

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Speaker 1: we're calling from whatever organization.

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Speaker 2: You think, oh, that's not true when you've hung up.

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Speaker 1: But how do you, I guess you know, how do

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Speaker 1: you safeguard yourself from that kind of thing?

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Speaker 3: I suppose if someone calls you and says they're calling

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Speaker 3: from let's say, the tax office or something like that,

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Speaker 3: my best advice would be, if you all suspicious, hang up,

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Speaker 3: research the number independently and call the tax office. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and so, hey, were you after me?

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 3: You just can't trust people calling you and assuming who they.

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Speaker 1: Are, and particularly do not hand over your credit card details.

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Speaker 1: Do not pay for anything unless you know exactly who

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Speaker 1: you're paying it to.

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Speaker 3: That's absolutely correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Craig, it is always good to catch up

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Speaker 1: with you. We really appreciate your advice. I know, that

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Speaker 1: a lot of Territorians obviously appreciate that advice, and we

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Speaker 1: want to make sure that people aren't being swindled out

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Speaker 1: of their hard earned money.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you,