What are Scams?
A scam is a fraudulent or deceptive scheme devised to trick you into giving up money, personal information or other valuable assets. Scammers target people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels making us all vulnerable to a scam at any time.
Scam methods
Be aware of the fraudulent tactics that scammers are using in order to avoid falling victim to them.
Impersonation Scams
Typically scammers pretend to be from a well-known trusted business or organisation and trick you into handing over your money or personal details. These scammers are likely to call you on your personal phone or email you informing you of debt that needs to be paid or you may lose access to your services. The Benevolent Society will never immediately cancel your services. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, please call us to discuss.
Invoicing Scams
Scammers sometimes send false invoices via email. These emails are designed to look like the real thing and will ask you to pay an invoice into an account that is different to the usual account you pay money into. If you receive one of these suspicious emails, contact us first before you make any payments to the account listed to verify if it's real or not.
Phishing Scams
'Phishing' is a way that experienced cyber criminals steal your confidential information such as online banking logins etc. Phishing scams are often sent to you in the form of an email or text message offering free services/ information to make you click on or open a link or document they provide. By doing this you may unknowingly download a virus or malware to your devices which starts to collect your personal information. Be cautious about the links you click and the documents you open from people and organisations that you do not know or trust.
Charity Scams
Charity scammers will contact you via phone, email or face to face and pretend to be a charity. Before you donate to any charity you should always check if they are a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission Charity Register. The Benevolent Society will never call you unannounced and ask you to provide your financial details for a donation over the phone, in person or via email.
Be Scam Aware
Be careful of fake accounts and advertisements online posing as The Benevolent Society. A list of our verified social media accounts is available below. If the account isn’t on the list, then it isn’t us.
We do not request personal information through our social media accounts. We will never ask you to provide your address, phone number, email address or any other personal information such as financial or government identifiers via social media.
Report a scam
If a scammer contacts you pretending to be an employee of The Benevolent Society, you should report it to us by email at [email protected] or call us on 1800 236 762.
If you have any other concerns, contact our National Support Centre on 1800 236 762.
The ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) provides information to Australians about how to recognise, avoid and report scams. You can also report scams to the Australian Government via it's official website ScamWatch.