ASIC is alerting investors about an impersonation scam using email and cold-calling tactics
Scammers are making fake offers of 30% discounts on bills and loan repayments
Unless you are dealing directly with the service provider, discount billing and upfront payment offers are often scams.
Background
Scammers are using free email services to falsely impersonate a registered company to make fake discount offers on bills and loan repayments. Discount offers from third parties are often fake, especially when they make the offers by cold calling you.
How the scam works
Scammers are:
cold calling people, promising savings of 30% on their bills and loan facilities
using free email services such as Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo to impersonate legitimate companies
stealing victim’s money by providing fake payment facilities to victims, such as a stolen credit card number, to make purchases or pay bills, when this purchase is ultimately reversed by the owner of the stolen credit card, the scammers then ask the victim to make repayments to various bank accounts held in the names of individuals. Scammers often use stolen identity documents to open ‘mule accounts’ to funnel money through.
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