Stay Away from Fake myGov Email
Have you got email that claims to be from the Australian Government & its myGov website? If you get such kind of fake email, delete it immediately. This email is a phishing scam that is particularly designed in order to capture your banking as well as personal information which may be used for identity theft, fraud as well as other unwanted activities in the future.
This phishing email includes links to fake pages as well as web forms that aim to trick you into providing your personal information such as your passport details as well as your drivers’ licence. These pages & forms also ask you to provide your bank account details.
The phishing email claims to come from myGov. However, the fake ‘sender’ address incorporates terms like ‘bashsummit’ as well as ‘esseaservizi’ that do not correspond with any legitimate myGov or Australian Government email addresses.
The subject line of this fake mail is ‘Australian Government and myGov must verify your identity!’
The body text reads as:
‘This is a notification email only. Please do not reply to this email as this mailbox is not monitored.
‘This is a message from the myGov Team.
‘Australian Government and myGov must verify your identity – (Part 4.2, paragraph 4.2.13 of the AML/CTF Rules).
‘Click go to myGov and start the verification process.
‘Thank you
‘Message reference: WP571′
You are strictly advised not to click these links in the phishing email as these direct you to forms that are designed to capture your personally identifiable information like photocopies of your drivers’ licences, passport, as well as your bank account details.
These fake pages & forms feature myGov design as well as branding, which makes them look legitimate. You may even be provided with an OTP or one-time PIN as part of the process of capturing your account details.
In case you have already done the blunder of providing your personal as well as financial information via this fake email & associated web pages & forms, please inform immediately to:
- The Australian Passport Office
- Your financial services providers (especially banks)
- The state government body responsible for drivers’ licences in your state or territory
You will then be advised of the next steps that you should take immediately in order to protect your information.
Stay Smart Online, the Australian Government’s online safety as well as security website, recommends people not to open any emails that come from unknown senders & that you be cautious of such unexpected emails.
In case you are not very sure about whether a mail is legitimate or not, contact the individual, organisation or department that it claims to have come from, by using a number that you have located on a website, bill or phonebook, before opening the message.
Always remember than protection is in your hands. Protecting your personal information or valuable data is your responsibility. All that you need to do in order to protect you personal data or information is ‘STAY CAUTIOUS & STAY AWARE’. Stupid decisions may ruin your life.