Thousands of Australian myGov accounts are being suspended every month because of scams.
From January to October of this year, Services Australia identified, investigated and responded to more than 6000 unique scams impersonating it.
These individual scams target multiple people, with almost 97 per cent featuring a reference to myGov.
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These scams vary in nature, and may tell users their account information needs to be updated or is incomplete, payments or rebates are available, their account is in danger somehow, or other misinformation intended to deceive the account holder.
A common feature is a link users need to click on.
Services Australia does not ask users to sign in via links and only alerts users to new messages through text.
Account holders should use the myGov app or go directly to the myGov website, using a trusted browser, to sign in.
“There is a growing trend of scammers impersonating government organisations, including myGov and Services Australia, to try and steal myGov sign in credentials and other personal information, such as bank details,” Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen told 7NEWS.com.au.
But “myGov remains secure and has not been compromised”, he said.
“It’s an unfortunate reality that opportunistic scammers steal identity information to carry out fraudulent activities.”
Jongen encouraged Australians to “be wary of unexpected contact”.
“Services Australia takes the security of customer information very seriously and has robust protections in place,” he said.
Specialist teams detect, report and remove scams related to Services Australia, Jongen said.
Scam kits available online
There is evidence that scammers are buying kits for these scams online.
“Criminals, malicious actors are making it easy for other criminals to generate and recreate myGov phishing sites,” Minister for the NDIS and Government Services Bill Shorten told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“And what they’re doing is they’re pretending to be an official myGov communication.
“Criminals are spreading.
“They’re selling the technology of how to try and impersonate a person on myGov.”
Shorten urged Australians not to click on links in emails and head directly to myGov through its website or app.
While scammers may not be able to access myGov accounts, they may use people’s information elsewhere.
“These criminal actors get an individual to give the criminal actor private details, which then the criminal actor will try and use,” Shorten said.
“The problem is people often use the same password for different accounts because that’s easier to remember.
“They’re just trying to hoover up information so they can impersonate you into government systems or banks or what have you.”
If you suspect someone has gained access to your myGov account, call the Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk on 1800 941 126.
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