Flourish Health & Wellbeing eMag - Latest Edition - Flipbook - Page 67
A practical money safety routine
Treat your money like your home. You
would not leave the front door open
simply because the street looks safe.
Use strong, unique passwords and turn on
multi factor authentication for banking,
email, superannuation, myGov and
investment accounts. Your email account
is especially important because it is often
the reset key for everything else.
Never move money based only on
instructions received by email, text, social
media or messaging apps. If bank details
change, call the business using a trusted
number and verbally con昀椀rm the details.
For investments, check whether the
person or company is licensed to provide
昀椀nancial services in Australia. Be wary
of testimonials, celebrity endorsements,
professional looking websites, social
media groups and “private” investment
clubs. These can all be faked.
Do not allow remote access to your
device unless you initiated contact with a
trusted provider and are certain who you
are dealing with.
Be cautious of QR codes in public places,
unsolicited messages about missed
deliveries, unexpected refunds, urgent tax
issues, toll notices, account restrictions
and “Hi Mum” style emergency messages.
These are designed to trigger fast action.
Most importantly, create a family or
workplace safety phrase for urgent money
requests. If someone calls claiming to be
a child, parent, colleague or manager and
asks for money, the safety phrase can
quickly prove whether the request is real.
If you think you have
been scammed
Act fast. Contact your bank immediately
and ask whether the transaction can be
stopped or recalled. Change passwords
on affected accounts. Report the scam to
Scamwatch and, if cybercrime is involved,
ReportCyber. If identity documents or
personal information have been exposed,
contact IDCARE for support.
Do not let shame delay action. Scam
victims are not foolish. They are targeted
by organised criminals who test scripts,
exploit technology and re昀椀ne their
methods every day.
