ANZ Smart Choice Super.
Super. Easy.
Set up in just five minutes,
in app or online.
Log in
Explore more
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Scams are attempts by criminals to purposefully and maliciously mislead you in order to get your money. Everyone is a potential target because scammers don’t discriminate, and will target people of any gender, age-group or socio-economic background.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) are encouraging Australians to "hear the alarm bells" to help avoid scams, learn more below.
While this is not an exhaustive list, the following should give you an idea of some common scams to watch out for, some tips on how you can spot them and suggestions for steps you might consider taking.
Towards the end of the year, scammers often find ways to take advantage of the festive season celebrations and customs. Scammers may impersonate online retailers, charitable organisations, eCard services and parcel delivery services to try and trick you into making a payment or providing personal/financial details to them.
Scammers might do this by:
Tips to help you protect yourself during the festive season:
The end of financial year is a busy time for individuals, organisations and their employees. Cyber criminals may look to take advantage of this period, where we might be more likely to overlook the signs of a scam.
At this time of year, scammers may impersonate the ATO or other government services such as myGov; and threaten individuals and businesses with tax debt or offer rebates. Scammers may contact you by phone call, SMS, email or other alternative messaging platforms.
Services Australia have warned about tax time scams and provided the following examples of what scammers might say:
© Commonwealth of Australia
If you are unsure about the authenticity of a call or message, contact the ATO or applicable government service to verify.
Top tips to help protect yourself during the end of financial year:
If you’re a business, a scammer posing as a supplier or vendor may email you to advise their banking details have changed. They will provide you with a new bank account number and ask that all future payments are processed to the new account.
A business may also receive an invoice from a supplier or vendor whose email account may have been compromised. The invoice will look legitimate so will not be questioned, with payment made to the criminal’s account.
In other variations of the scam, the cyber-criminal will send an email internally to a company’s accounts team, pretending to be a senior executive such as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO), requesting an urgent transfer of funds in the hope the recipient will respond swiftly without verifying the request. Cyber criminals can also request salary or rental payments be directed to a new account.
Here are some steps that might help protect yourself and your business against email compromise:
For more information on BEC scams and other preventative steps you can take please click here.
Read more on an ANZ media release.
Scammers may contact you by phone call, SMS, email, social media or alternative messaging platforms (e.g. WhatsApp) claiming to be a legitimate organisation or loved one in an attempt to trick you into performing an action (such as visiting a website to capture personal details, sharing sensitive information over the phone (e.g. passwords or making a payment to an account). Scam messages may even appear in the same thread of prior messages from the actual person or organisation.
There are numerous impersonation scams circulating, which may be convincing as the impersonator preys on emotions such as trust, fear, panic, or curiosity.
Scammers may impersonate:
If you think you’ve been targeted by an Impersonation Scam, here are some precautions to protect yourself:
Investment scams involve the scammer getting you to send money or provide personal details on the promise of big payouts, quick money, or guaranteed returns. According to Scamwatch, Australians lose more money to investment scams than any other type.
Investment scams can be very convincing. Scammers may look and sound highly professional, and it may be hard to tell if they are genuine investments or not.
There are various forms of investment scams. Common examples include:
Cryptocurrency scams involve using cryptocurrencies or digital currencies as a medium of exchange for an investment opportunity. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can be very hard to track. Scammers may ask the unsuspecting victim to invest in a crypto platform with the promise of high and guaranteed returns. These can be fake trading platforms where the scammer is able to manipulate figures which may lead you to believe that your investment is gaining profit.
Ponzi schemes typically tend to pay existing investors with funds collected from new investors. They may promise to invest your money to generate high profit and guaranteed returns. However, it’s likely the perpetrators do not invest the money and instead they use your money to pay those who invested ahead of you and will repeat the same cycle as new investors join in.
Imposter bonds are when perpetrators present themselves as legitimate representatives or employees of financial firms offering high yield fixed term deposits or treasury bonds that are non-existent or untrue. You may be directed to pay funds into a bank account, and once you do that, it may be very hard to recover your funds.
Fake public offerings, referred to by the scammer as an IPO or an initial public offering, of shares from a “promising” company or from an industry sector that becomes “hot.” You may be directed to buy unregistered shares in a private company before the initial public is made aware of it, which usually turns out to be a bogus IPO, or such company is not engaging in an IPO.
Superannuation scams may lead to scammers creating superannuation accounts under your name or transferring your money to a fake superfund. They may promise different withdrawal methods, but you may end up losing your money and having your identity compromised.
Romance baiting is when scammers pretend to be potential future partners in a dating app or platform. After building a relationship with you online, the scammer may start asking for your personal information or finances and offer you some investment opportunities and starts asking you for money.
Celebrity endorsement scams may start with an offer of investment opportunity for a product, service, or material being endorsed by a celebrity. Often, these celebrities are linked to those products without their consent.
Gambling and sports betting may be about investing on a software with the promise of a game’s outcome or high returns. It may also be investing money to form a group with a pool of money, where the scammer will claim to bet on behalf of the group and share a percentage of the profits.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) Moneysmart, signs of an investment scam may include:
Job scams are an attempt to trick you into handing over your money by offering you a ‘guaranteed’ way to make fast money or a high-paying job for little effort.
Someone contacts you (via phone, text, email, letter or social media message) to tell you that you have won an online competition or lottery draw. But before you can get your prize money, you’ll have to pay a fee to claim your prize. The prize money doesn’t exist and the funds you’ve sent are lost.
Someone claiming to be a lawyer gets in touch with you, letting you know that you’re the last living relative of a wealthy person who’s passed away. You're entitled to inherit their fortune, but in order to receive it you need to pay some legal fees. In reality, there is no inheritance and the money you send goes straight to the scammers.
Sellers post classified ads for items such as pets, cars, bikes and rental properties. These ads look legitimate with detailed information, attractive photos and a great offer of a low price.
If you contact the seller, they may claim to be travelling or say they’ve moved overseas recently. They then may say that an agent give you the goods once they get your payment. You pay them and get sent a professional-looking email receipt, but your goods never arrive and the seller disappears, with you having no way to contact them.
A phishing scam is when you receive a hoax email, text or social media post that looks like it's come from a legitimate company like your bank, mobile phone or internet service provider.
The phishing scammer wants to trick you into giving them your personal information such as your password, bank account or credit card number.
There are many different scams circulating. As examples, scammers may send out communications claiming:
Be extra diligent if you receive an email that:
Pause before responding. If it doesn’t seem right, or is unexpected, question it. Use the contact details on the company’s official website to call and verify any suspicious or unusual requests.
Remember - ANZ will never send you an email asking for your account details, financial details, or your log in details for ANZ Phone Banking, ANZ Mobile Banking or ANZ Internet Banking.
Typically, the scammer will phone you and pretend to be a staff member from a large telecommunications or technology organisation. They may claim your internet connection has been hacked or your security has been compromised and your assistance is required with an investigation.
Normally, the real organisations will not make unsolicited calls or ask you to install software in order to access your computer device remotely. These agencies will also not ask you to purchase gift cards or vouchers to pay for debts or transfer funds to offshore accounts for the purposes of assisting with an investigation.
Here are some precautions to reduce your risk of falling victim to a remote access scam:
An unexpected message or request (through channels such as email, social media platforms, messaging apps, etc.) from someone you don’t know might be the start of a romance scam.
The scammer uses a false identity to capture your interest and builds an emotional connection over a period of time by revealing personal information, sending you gifts or promising to visit you. They may use fictitious names and often claim to be from Australia but working overseas.
Once they’ve gained your trust, they are likely to ask you for money either directly or more subtly, for instance by telling you that they require money for transport to visit you, they require urgent funds to evade prosecution in another country or have a sick relative who needs funds for medical treatment.
The scammer may also claim they have made a sizeable profit from investing in cryptocurrencies, shares or other investment products. They may attempt to persuade you to “invest” your money in a low-risk, high-return opportunity. You may be convinced to transfer money into an investment account quickly so that you do not miss out.
The scammer will typically disappear after the payment has been made or continue seeking opportunities to collect more money.
In other instances, the scammer may ask to use your bank account to receive money and to on-transfer these funds to another account. You may be unknowingly recruited as a money mule.
Threats and extortion scams can arise where you are threatened, coerced, blackmailed or frightened into complying with the scammers' demands. Demands could include paying money immediately or disclosing personal information to the scammer.
Scammers may impersonate personal contacts (including romantic interests), organisations, government (e.g., the tax office) or the police. You may be threatened with legal action, arrest, reputational damage, deportation, physical harm or even threats to life unless you pay immediately.
In an online sales scam, the scammer poses as a buyer or seller attempting to trick you into making a payment to them. They may even trick you into sending goods you’re selling to them despite being unpaid for. Scams are often products that are difficult to find or highly popular, such as concert tickets.
Common examples may include:
A money mule is a person (or company) who is recruited by criminals to transfer illegally obtained money or goods on their behalf. They are typically used to receive and distribute the proceeds of many crimes, including fraud and scams.
Some money mules are unaware they are involved in criminal activities. They may be caught up in a romance scam or may have been approached as part of a job scam – where they enter into an agreement to shift money between accounts for a financial return, unaware or oblivious to the illegal nature of the transfers. They may even believe they’re involved in an investment opportunity.
Scammers can also use compromised identities to open mule accounts by obtaining personal information – acquired through various means, such as data breaches, phishing attacks or purchasing stolen data on the dark web.
We're working every day to help keep you secure online, however it's also your responsibility to keep yourself secure. With new scams regularly surfacing, it’s important to educate yourself on the most common types of scams so you know what to look out for. To help you, here are some suggestions of simple steps you can take to further improve your level of security:
Click here to download a flyer on protecting yourself from scams.
Click here to download the ACCC’s Little Black Book of Scams.
Learn more about scams from the Australian Federal Police
The information on this page does not take into account your personal needs and financial circumstances and you should consider whether it is appropriate for you and read the relevant terms and conditions, Product Disclosure Statement and the ANZ Financial Services Guide (PDF) before acquiring any product.
Applications for credit subject to approval. Terms and conditions available on application. Fees and charges apply. Australian credit licence number 234527.