SPOTTING AND REPORTING A SCAM by Jay Hira, Director of Cyber Transformation at EY Kavika Singhal, Cyber Security Consultant at EY Sarah Box, Willyama Services - Project Manager
INTRODUCTION
SPOT A SCAM
Jay Hira
Kavika Singhal
On New Year’s Eve as I was sipping a cuppa, getting
Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated,
ready to bring in the New Year with the family, my
but their ultimate goal is to steal your money or
phone rang. It was a dear friend, and their voice was
personal information. To guard against these
shaking. They told me they had fallen for a scam
attempts, familiarise yourself with the following
and needed me to lend a hand. I could hear the
three steps.
fear in their voice and the noise of fireworks in the background, which made it clear they were calling
1.
Psychological awareness: protecting yourself from psychological manipulation.
from a crowded public place, probably trying to escape the chaos of the celebration.
• Be vigilant. Stay vigilant and think critically before My friend had received a call from someone claiming
responding to any requests for money or personal
to be from the tax office informing them they had
information.
an outstanding debt. The caller had used convincing
• Identify red flags. Look out for red flags such
lingo and official-sounding jargon, and my friend was
as unrealistic offers, impersonation of authority
so worried about the consequences of not paying the
figures, and false senses of urgency. These are
debt that they transferred the money as requested.
common tactics used by scammers to trick their victims.
I could feel their fear, and knew we had to act swiftly. The rest of the New Year’s Eve celebration was a little
• Trust your instincts. If something seems too
subdued, but we went through a series of steps to
good to be true, it probably is. Do not be afraid to
control the damage and report what had happened
say no if you feel uncomfortable or unsure.
through appropriate channels. 2. In early January when Australian Women in Security
Technical measures: safeguarding your devices and online identity.
magazine editor Abigail Swabey reached out to check if our team was planning to contribute to Issue 13,
passphrases that are at least 12 characters long
everybody to stay vigilant and be aware of the tactics
and include a combination of uppercase and
used by scammers, and remind them of the channels
lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers.
they can use to report a scam.
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• Strong passwords. Use strong passwords or
we thought we would share this story to remind
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
• Multifactor authentication. Enable multifactor
M A R C H • A P R I L 2023
