Australians Warned Of New Scam Following Federal Budget

Australians are being warned not to fall for the latest scam pretending to be the Australian Government’s myGov.

Scammers looking to take advantage of people desperate for cost-of-living relief are sending texts saying Australians can take advantage of a one-off payment of $750 to “help with their living expenses”.

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The text also includes a link which looks to send people to the myGov website, but is in fact fact.

Scammers often use myGov or other government services as the basis of their attempts to trick Australians into handing over their money.

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down his Federal Budget on Tuesday night, minsters were made aware of the text message circulating. 

“I'm hearing that scam texts like this are being sent tonight - don't click on any links in texts messages. Any message from myGov will be in your myGov inbox,” Labor’s Steven Jones said in a Tweet.

Scam crackdown in budget

The Federal Government committed $10 million over four years to establish an SMS sender ID registry.

It will be used as a blocking list and help stop scammers acting as major brands and businesses like myGov, Linkt and Australia Post.

Text messages were the leading method for scammers to contact its victims, estimating to cost Australians $3.1 billion in the last year alone.

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