Dear Neville
I refer to your correspondence to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations on 19 August 2024. Your correspondence has been forwarded to the ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Centre for a response.
We are sorry to hear about your concerns during your recent job search. Unfortunately, scammers often post fake job listings on job search engines and may impersonate legitimate organisations, to try and appear legitimate. When applying for jobs found on job search sites, we recommend conducting an independent search for the job, and applying via the company website wherever possible. Be wary of applications that ask for lots of personal information, or financial information/money. Also be cautious of any unsolicited communication or requests for information or money you did not expect.
How we are stopping scams
To ensure Australians are better protected against scams the Government launched the National Anti-Scam Centre on 1 July 2023. The National Anti-Scam Centre is a virtual centre that combines expertise from government, industry, regulators, law enforcement and community organisations to make Australia a harder target for scammers.
The National Anti-Scam Centre has just initiated a jobs and employment scam fusion cell to disrupt criminal groups advertising or offering jobs which do not exist.
Fusion cells are time-limited taskforces designed to bring together expertise from government and the private sector to take timely action to address specific, urgent issues.
As part of its efforts to combat job scams, the National Anti-Scam Centre will collaborate with the social media platforms where many of these scams are shared. It will also work with law enforcement, banks, digital currency exchanges, job advertisement platforms, impersonated recruitment agencies and other entities to share intelligence and identify innovative ways to disrupt job scams.
Report scams to Scamwatch
We encourage you to report scams you encounter to Scamwatch, via the ‘report a scam’ webform: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam.
Scamwatch receives over 200,000 reports each year from the public about scam activity. We use the information from scam reports to identify key scams, and we share this information with a range of other government organisations and private entities to help disrupt and reduce scams.
If you have been scammed, please follow the steps below to defend against the scam.
Contact your bank/financial institution
If you have recently transferred money, you should contact your bank or financial institution as soon as possible. Unfortunately it is often very difficult to recover funds stolen by scams, but reporting the scam to your bank means they may be able to find where the money was sent, block the scam accounts, and help others avoid sending money to the scammer.
If you are not satisfied with the response from your bank, you can seek free advice from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
Contact IDCARE
If any of your personal information has been stolen, we would like to refer you to a free service called IDCARE.
IDCARE is Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service. They provide a free and confidential support service for those impacted by scams and identity crimes. IDCARE can assist to help you recover from the scam and protect you in the future.
You can contact IDCARE on 1800 595 160 and quote the reference number ACCC – ID21 so they know the ACCC’s Scamwatch has referred you.
Watch out for new scams
Scammers may try and target you again in other scams. Unfortunately, 1 in 3 victims are scammed more than once. Be cautious of any messages or calls you did not expect to receive, and always independently verify requests for information or money.
How we are stopping scams
To ensure Australians are better protected against scams the Government launched the National Anti-Scam Centre on 1 July 2023. The National Anti-Scam Centre is a virtual centre that combines expertise from government, industry, regulators, law enforcement and community organisations to make it more difficult to scam Australians. Through increased sharing of scam reports and other initiatives, the National Anti-Scam Centre will help inform finance, telecommunications and digital platforms sectors to take more timely and effective steps to stop scammers. This collaboration will see financial institutions and law enforcement working together to disrupt scams.
Crisis support
Scams can be very distressing. If you need crisis support at any time please contact one of the free services below:
- Lifeline (131114 is a 24 hour support line) you can also access an online crisis support chat at https://www.lifeline.org.au/ from 7pm – midnight AEST, 7 days a week.
- Beyond Blue (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/) You can chat to a counsellor online (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/support-service/chat).
You can find out more about job and employment scams on the Scamwatch website here: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/jobs-and-employment-scams
Again, we are sorry to hear about your experience and I hope this information will be of assistance.
Kind regards
Elizabeth
| The Scamwatch team Australian Competition & Consumer Commission Scamwatch |
| The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to their Elders past, present and future. |
—
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
