INVERLOCH Police have issued an urgent appeal for members of the community to be wary of bank-related scams over the phone after a local woman reported losing $20,000 in recent days.

According to Sergeant Adrian Condron of the Inverloch Police, the elderly local lady received what she thought as compelling information over the phone before downloading a link to her phone which ultimately allowed the scammers access to her bank accounts.

“We are seeing more and more of this, and the sums of money being lost are significnat,” Sergeant Condron said.

“In this case, the local woman has answered what she thought was a genuine call from her bank and has been convinced to download something on to her phone which has given these people access to her bank details.

“It’s a situation which is happening with alarming regularity now and we can’t stress enough that people should hang up and immediately report the contact to their bank or to police.”

Sergeant Condron said the banks have made a point of saying they do not contact people directly by phone

How do ‘remote access’ scams work

Remote access scamming occurs when targets are contacted via phone, text or email by a scammer falsely claiming to be from a familiar company, such as a bank, telco, software company or government agency.

They'll often give a fake but credible story, to trick you into giving them remote access to your computer or device. This gives the scammer full access to your computer – and personal information – from a remote location.

How to avoid being scammed

What to look for:

Scammers use a variety of ways to contact victims, including online “pop ups” warning about a virus, telephone calls, and phishing emails.

Text messages and emails are also used to engage with and trick people. The scammer may initially sound professional and knowledgeable about the company or product they’re calling you about, but they could also be overly persistent and claim you’re being unreasonable or even become abusive if you don't do what they ask.

Any behaviour or attitude like this is a red flag that it’s time to end the interaction.

Be especially wary of calls about online banking requests to:

* Reset your password after a recent spate of hacks

* Purchase a new modem to fix your internet connection

* Update your account or device with new security features

* Provide personal details to verify your account activity

How to protect yourself

* Never give an unsolicited caller or contact remote access to your computer

* Never share your login details with anyone

* Never provide any personal details over the phone, by text message or email to an unsolicited caller

* If you receive an unexpected phone call, text or email about your computer and remote access is requested, hang up or delete immediately – even if they mention a well-known company or entity

* Scammers can obtain your number fraudulently, so you may still receive scam calls even if you have a private number or are on the Australian Government's ‘Do Not Call Register’.

* Make sure your computer is protected with regularly updated anti-virus software that you’ve bought and installed yourself

* Think about limiting admin access on your computer, so you just use a ‘user’ profile for every day to control who can install new programs and change security settings

* Consider encrypting any files containing sensitive information on your device or protecting them with additional passwords

* Scammers often use popular business collaboration tools as a way of remotely taking control of your computer, including TeamViewer and AnyDesk. Use these with caution and before giving permissions to other users, be certain you know who you’re communicating with

* Know that while most remote-access methods target PCs and laptops, there’s been an increase in the remote accessing of other devices, such as Android tablets and phones.

'Susy's' story

Here's a real-life case of a remote access scam provided by CommBank.

62-year-old 'Susy' received an urgent call from 'Tim', who said he was from the security department of her telephone company. Tim claimed he had detected a hacker who was sending her random advertising emails with malware (a malicious computer program) that could be used to access all of Susy’s personal details. Susy agreed to receive Tim’s help, and so downloaded and installed a computer program that gave Tim access to her computer.

Over a period of time, Tim scammed Susy out of more than $90,000 – you can read her full story in the CommBank Safe & Savvy Guide: https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/commbank-assets/about-us/2018-06/Safe-and-savvy-preventing-the-financial-abuse-of-seniors.pdf#page=24