Scam Alert!

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is currently contacting
banks across Australia to make them aware of an emerging scam trend which may have
significant impacts for Australian consumers.

There is a summary of what this scam looks like on  Scamwatch:

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news-alerts/missed-delivery-call-or-voicemail-flubot-scams

What will happen:

• You will receive text messages or voicemails/missed calls
• More recently these have related to messages about parcel delivery.
• All messages contain a link, and if you click it a download option for an App will pop up
• If you download this App – your phone will be infected and the app will be able to read and send text messages, make calls and access all of your contacts!
• The app also uploads all of your contacts to a central server, which then distributes to other infected phones, so those phones can send the Flubot messages to the numbers copied from contact lists.
• The ACCC’s understanding is that this can only infect Android devices at this stage, but clicking the links on iPhones may cause other malware to be downloaded.
• The key advice is to never click a link or install an app from any text message, even if you believe it is from a friend.

There is further concern that the next phase of the scam may involve mobile banking compromise, which was the case in Europe following the Flubot’s emergence earlier this year. This involves scammers basically making a Mobile Banking page that looks exactly like our mobile banking, or even the App. These are designed to be identical to login screens to our banking Apps! This means when the member logs in – the hackers get all their login details!

 

The ACCC are aware that at least one Australian banking overlay has been developed and are concerned this will expand to other institutions in coming weeks. If our members are targeted this could cause significant financial losses.

 

If you have any questions – please call our member Service Officers on 1300 369 900