How individuals and businesses can protect themselves from scams.

The volume and sophistication of scams are increasing year on year. With scammers tapping into new technologies, products, services, trends or events for creative new ways to con their victims for their money or personal details.

As an individual, being alert and aware is the number one way to prevent scams, or at least, minimise the impacts of scams.

In a business setting, the risk is spread among the teams and individuals. Individual awareness levels will vary. Even if we are highly alert or aware, many of us are increasingly time-poor and juggling more, making us more vulnerable to scams.

Ensuring all staff are aware of the key ways to prevent scams is important.

Scam prevention tips

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch recommends the following ways to protect individuals and businesses from scams.

Be alert – scams exist.
Know who you’re dealing with, and research if unsure.
Make sure any business billing you is the one you normally deal with.
If you notice a supplier’s usual bank account details have changed, call them on a pre-existing number to confirm.
Where possible, use a business’s PayID and ensure it is linked to the correct PayID holder
Do not open suspicious texts, pop-up windows or click on links or attachments in emails – delete them.
Don’t respond to phone calls about remote access to your computer – hang up!
Keep all personal details secure, whether they be on computer, mobile, paper documents. Critically, keep passwords and pin numbers in a safe place.
Keep your mobile devices and computers secure. Always use password protection, update security software and back up content.
Choose passwords carefully.
Review privacy and security settings on social media.
Beware of any requests for details or money.
Be wary of unusual payment requests, such as payments in cryptocurrency or gift cards.
Be careful when shopping online. Beware of offers that seem too good to be true. Think twice before using virtual currencies like Bitcoin.

What else can you do to avoid cybercrime

The most recent scam statistics from Scamwatch show scams are still largely delivered by phone 60.4%, followed by email 15.7%, text message 12.7%, internet 3.9% and social networking at 3.3%.

With the majority of scams delivered via these means, it makes good sense to implement security awareness training and deploy effective security solutions as an insurance policy to filter and curb suspicious activity. You could call it anti-scam insurance.