NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge today issued an alert regarding an international scam involving emails being sent to people in Sydney supposedly from friends travelling overseas asking for money to be sent to them urgently to get them out of trouble.

Ms Judge, a friend of the latest victim, Ross Steele, and nearly a victim herself, said she had received one of the scam emails, but became suspicious.

“According to the scam email, my friend, Mr Steele, was stuck in Spain, missing a wallet and with no funds for accommodation or means to get back to Sydney,” she said.

“As it turned out he was in fact in Sydney, having never left the country.”

Mr Steele said his problems started last month when his emails stopped.

“A couple of days later, my friends, including Virginia Judge, received emails allegedly from me, saying I was stranded in Madrid and needed money to be sent to a Western Union account,” he said.

“The email also claimed I was unable to be contacted by phone.

“Unfortunately, at least five of my friends sent money, one of whom was able to retrieve her $2,000 after realising she had been scammed.

“The worry is that I still have no idea how the scammer was able to hack into my email account.”

Ms Judge said social networking sites could expose people to scams, with scammers using personal information to con money from people’s family and friends.

“Scammers target and gain control of email and social networking accounts and once they have control of a person’s account, they change the password and pose as that person.”

Ms Judge said scammers also used ‘phishing’ techniques.

“Phishing scams are all about tricking consumers into giving out their personal information to commit identity theft or steal money,” she said.

“Scammers may also con consumers into downloading spyware or other malicious software onto their computer.

“Once installed, these viruses and programs can be used to steal email account passwords and other important personal details.

“The personal information you put on your social networking profile can also be used by scammers to guess your passwords.”

Ms Judge said to protect yourself:

• Check the privacy settings and think about who you really want to have access to your personal information.
• Be careful about what personal information you put on the internet, as these details can be used by scammers to guess your passwords or to commit fraud.
• Check how much information about you is available on the internet, why not type your name into a search engine and see how many hits you get.
• Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security, online ‘friends’ may not be who they say they are.
• When you are on holiday, make sure family and friends have a way of contacting you other than by email – such as a mobile or through your hotel.
• If you receive an email that appears to be from a family member or friend claiming to be in trouble look at the way the email is written, ask yourself whether the email sounds like it was written by that person. Try to contact them directly through alternative means.
• NEVER send your online account details through an email and think carefully before you give away any personal or financial information.
• Keep your computer updated with the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Also use a good firewall.

Ms Judge encouraged people to report scams to the ACCC's Infocentre on
1300 302 502 or visit the report a scam page of the SCAMwatch website.

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