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Posts tagged "alert"

Australians lost $12.5M to scams last month. Older women are the hardest hit.

September 22nd, 2017 Posted by Alerts, Financial Management, Gobbill News, Staysmartonline 0 thoughts on “Australians lost $12.5M to scams last month. Older women are the hardest hit.”

Gobbill processes 3 times more bills in the last month of each quarter, with installments such as council rates and some electricity bills coming up for payment. This makes this period the ideal time for scammers to target individuals with fraudulent bills.

It’s always good to keep a close eye on your email inbox. Statistics show that online scams are a growing issue, with huge losses to scams over August this year. Australians lost $12.5M in scams last month (August 2017), which is almost double compared to the same time last year. Email fraud makes up an estimated 27% of all scams, with an estimated total of $3.4M lost last month. The hardest hit by scams are older women. Apart from being aware and cautious of scams, keep yourself protected with Gobbill to help check and pay email bills.

August 2017 – Number of reports by Age and Gender

Source: Scamwatch

 

Gobbill is a partner of the Commonwealth Government Stay Smart Online program. In recent months, the Government Cyber program has issued a number of alerts of new phishing emails carrying malware. The emails pretend to come from a number of Australian institutions including Telstra, Origin Energy and AGL.

Find out more about Gobbill. It’s free to use service that protects you from email bill scams.

High Alert for ransomware issued by Australian Government cyber security agency.

May 14th, 2017 Posted by Alerts, Internet Safety, Staysmartonline 0 thoughts on “High Alert for ransomware issued by Australian Government cyber security agency.”

Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) has today issued a high priority alert to beware of the same ransomware disrupting organisations globally, including the UK’s National Health Service.

What can you do? Keep safe by applying software updates and backing up your data regularly. Use Gobbill to check and pay your email bills. You don’t need to know if it’s a fake bill and you don’t need to click on any links. Simply forward the email to your own @gobbill.com email address and it’s taken care for you. Read more gobbill.com.au

Last week, hackers used tools believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency which has infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries, disrupting Britain’s health system and global shipper FedEx. Australian Cyber Security Centre is tracking the attack campaign which goes by various names including WannaCry. It leverages known vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows patched since March 2017 making this disruption and impact preventable.

ACORN reports that they are continuing to monitor the situation closely.

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New Gobbill users can sign up for a FREE account at gobbill.com.au.

Follow us on Facebook/gobbill to receive further alerts.

 
What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is malicious software that makes data or systems unusable until the victim makes a payment. In this case, cyber extortionists tricked victims into opening malicious malware attachments to spam emails that appeared to contain invoices, job offers, security warnings and other legitimate files reports The Sydney Morning Herald. 

About ACORN.

ACORN provides information on how to recognise and avoid common forms of cybercrime, such as hacking, online scams, online fraud, identity theft, attacks on computer systems and illegal or prohibited content, as well as offering advice to those who have fallen victim.