Protect yourself from scams

See what we’re doing and how you can help protect yourself from scams.

Protect yourself from scams that have cost Australians millions of dollars in just the first 3 months of 2024.

Australians reported losses of as much as $345.6 million from scams between January and March 2024.¹

In this 3-month period, Australians reported:

• $73.2 million in losses to Scamwatch
• $173.2 million to ReportCyber
• $99.2 million to the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX).

Each agency recorded a drop in reports compared to the previous quarter. The losses reported to Scamwatch, for example, were $73.2 million compared to $82.1 million in the last quarter of 2023 – a 10.8% drop. Note: There may have been some duplicate reports to the 3 agencies.²

How Australians are being scammed

The Scamwatch figures for January to March 2024 show the main ways Australians are being scammed:  

• Text messages, emails and phone calls were the top 3 methods scammers used.
• Scammers are using social media more to target Australians, with reports over the quarter up 11.8%.
• Investment scams continued to cause the greatest financial harm, costing Australians $47.1 million over the quarter.

How Australian Retirement Trust keeps your super safe

Keeping your super safe is our priority. We have security in place to protect your super account and protect you against identity fraud. We’ll never ask you for the login details for your super account.

Here’s what you can expect from us:

• If you call us, we’ll ask you some questions so that we can verify your identity.
• We’ll call you if we’re suspicious about account activity such as a benefit payment or transfer request.
• When we write to you, we won’t include unnecessary personal information such as your date of birth.
• We monitor benefit payment and transfer requests to detect any that may be fraudulent.
• We have security measures in place to help reduce the risk of unauthorised access to confidential data and documents.
• We have proof of identity measures in place.

6 simple ways you can help keep your super safe

• Always keep your account login details secret. Use a strong password or pass-phrase for your account. Consider using a password management tool.
• Contact us to confirm the call was legitimate if you receive a phone call from someone claiming to work for us that arouses your suspicions.
• Monitor your account regularly via Member Online or our app and check your annual statement. Let us know if there’s any unexpected changes to your account.
• Let us know if any of your personal documents like your passport or driver’s licence are lost or stolen, your phone is stolen, or your computer/email account has been compromised.
• Keep your hard copy annual statements and other personal documents in a secure location and destroy or shred any unnecessary documents that contain your personal information.
• Take steps to protect your phone and email like having a password, PIN or fingerprint scan to unlock your phone or multi-factor authentication on your email account.

How to spot a scam and report it

Common signs of a scam include:

• It's an amazing opportunity to make or save money
• Someone you haven't met needs your help – and money
• The message contains links or attachments
• You feel pressured to act quickly
• They ask you to pay in an unusual or specific ways
• They ask you to set up new accounts or PayIDs.

Source: ACCC Scamwatch, Ways to spot and avoid scams.

What’s being done to combat scammers

A joint Australian Government and private sector National Anti-Scam Centre, launched in July 2023, aims to better combat scammers. In the first 3 months of 2024, the National Anti-Scam Centre² sent targeted scam alerts about:

• financial criminals trying to lure people looking for love on Valentine’s Day into investment scams
• deepfake celebrity investment scams and online investment trading platform scams targeting older Australians
• scammers compromising social media accounts to sell fake tickets to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour
• Spotify impersonation scams.

Its first Fusion Cell,³ a taskforce of 43 organisations working together to combat scammers, spent 6 months targeting investment scams. Investment scams cost Australians $292 million in 2023. From August 2023 to February 2024 the investment scam Fusion Cell:

• created a direct referral process that took down over 1,000 investment scam advertisements, advertorials and videos from digital platforms
• took down 220 investment scam websites
• diverted 113 attempted calls that were going to scam phone numbers, sending them instead to a recorded scam warning.

Keep super safe

Find out more about password security or spotting scams.
Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions.

1. Media Release, 21 May 2024, ACCC Scamwatch, National Anti-Scam Centre reports on third quarter and first fusion cell, at scamwatch.gov.au
2. National Anti-Scam Centre, May 2024, National Anti-Scam Centre in action Quarterly update January to March 2024, at accc.gov.au
3. Australian Government, National Anti-Scam Centre, ASIC, May 2024, Investment scam fusion cell, at accc.gov.au