A Mandurah resident who could have lost thousands of dollars to a pension phone scam had she not realised in time is urging other residents to beware when receiving unexpected calls from the authorities.
On Friday last week, Pauline Beamond received a call from an alleged Centrelink officer informing her that her pension was awaiting a payment from the government.
The alleged officer said she needed to call a phone number in Canberra immediately to get her pension payment sorted, since the Perth office had unsuccessfully been trying to contact her for several days.
Ms Beamond said the officer hung up without giving her a chance to ask any questions or make any comments.
“I couldn’t say anything,” she said.
“I knew it was a scam because I had no chance to reply to what they said and it sounded like a recorded message, but even I was a bit concerned.”
She decided to ignore the caller’s request to contact a number in Canberra, and she called the office of local member for Mandurah David Templeman instead, who advised her that it was a scam.
“There’s so many scams floating around,” she said.
“There’s a lot of older people in Mandurah that would have rang straight away, and once they get people on the phone they make it sound so good.”
The local pensioner said she was concerned that other Mandurah residents might fall for the scam out of fear and is warning other pensioners to make sure they don’t call any numbers without checking they are the organisation’s official phone number.
“I just feel that the people in town really need too know, it really sounds quite scary,” Ms Beamond said.
Consumer protection warning
A consumer protector spokesman said these types of scams were known as phishing scams, and tried to trick people into revealing their personal password or financial information.
“Which could result in theft or identity fraud being committed at a later stage,” he said.
“Our tips to people who receive these calls is to never provide your personal, credit card or account details to anyone you don’t know, unless you have verified they are authentic.
“If in doubt, hang up and call the organisation independently by getting their contact from the internet or white pages.”
He said people who believed they had provided their bank or credit card details to a scammer should contact the organisation immediately.
“It may be necessary to cancel the credit card or put a hold on their bank accounts,” he said.
If you have received any phone calls or emails which you suspect might be a scam call consumer protection’s advice line on 1300 304 054 or send an email to wascamnet@commerce.wa.gov.au.