What You Should Know About Online Fraud:
Online fraud occurs when someone poses as a legitimate company to obtain sensitive personal data and illegally conducts transactions on your accounts, often called "phishing" or "spoofing".
The current methods of online fraud are fake Emails, websites and pop-up windows
or any combination of these.
Always keep in mind that Housing Loans Australia will never send an "unsolicited"
request for personal information via Email or require customers to send personal
information via Email or pop-up windows.
However, we may from time to time reply to your Email and you will know it's from Housing Loans Australia by the distinctive"Subject Line Heading" that you have input.
Any unsolicited request for account information you receive through Emails,
websites, or pop-up windows that purports to be from Housing Loans Australia
should be considered fraudulent and reported to us immediately at: PrivacyEmail@HousingLoans.com.au
Fake Emails will often:
· Ask you for personal information, often contain an overly generic greeting
and may claim that your information has been compromised, that your account
has been frozen, or ask you to confirm the authenticity of your transactions.
· Appear to be from a legitimate source. While some Emails are easy to identify as fraudulent, others may appear to be from a legitimate address and trusted online source. However, you should not rely on the name or address in the "From" field, as this is easily altered.
· Contain fraudulent job offers. Some fake Emails appear to be from companies offering jobs. These are often work-at-home accounting positions, which are actually schemes that victimize both the job applicant and other customers. Be sure to confirm that the job offer is from a known and trusted company.
· Contain prizes or gift certificate offers. Some fake Emails promise a prize or gift certificate in exchange for completing a survey or answering questions. In order to collect the alleged prize or gift certificate you may be directed to provide your personal information. Just like with job offers, be sure to confirm that prize or gift certificate is being issued from a known and trusted company.
· Link to counterfeit websites. Fake Emails may direct you to counterfeit websites carefully designed to look real, but which actually collect personal information for illegal use.
· Link to real websites. In addition to links to counterfeit websites, some fake Emails also include links to legitimate websites. The fraudsters do this in an attempt to make a fake Email appear real.
· Contain fraudulent phone numbers. Fake Emails often contain telephone numbers that are tied to the fraudsters. Never call a number featured on an Email you suspect is fraudulent, and be sure to double-check any numbers you do call. Check in the phone book first.
· Contain real phone numbers. Some of the telephone numbers listed in
fake Emails may be legitimate, connecting to actual companies. Just like with
links, fraudsters include the real phone numbers in an effort to make the Email
appear to be legitimate. If you do phone a number, always ask if the Company
is running any special offers or give-aways.
Trojan Horses:
These fake Emails may also contain a virus known as a "Trojan horse"
that can record your keystrokes. The virus may "live" in an attachment
or be accessed via a link in an Email.
Again, Housing Loans Australia's customers should keep in mind that we do not request personal information via "unsolicited" Emails or send Email attachments. Never respond to Emails, open attachments, or click on links from suspicious or unknown senders.
If you're not sure whether a Housing Loans Australia Email is legitimate, report it to us without replying to that particular Email.
How is my Email address obtained?
Email addresses can be obtained from publicly available sources or through randomly
generated lists. Therefore, if you receive a fake Email that appears to be from
Housing Loans Australia, this does not mean that your Email address, name, or
any other information has been taken from Housing Loans Australia's systems.
Counterfeit websites:
Online thieves often direct you to fraudulent websites via Email and pop-up
windows and try to collect your personal information. In many cases there is
no easy way to determine that you are on a phony website, because the URL will
contain the name of the institution it is "spoofing". However, if
you type, or cut and paste, the URL into a new Web browser window and it does
not take you to a legitimate website, or you get an error message, it was probably
just a cover for a fake website.
Another way to detect a phony website is to consider how you arrived there. Generally, you would be directed there by a link in a fake Email requesting your account information. Again, Housing Loans Australia will not request personal information from customers via Email and any "unsolicited" request should be considered fraudulent and reported immediately.
How can I help protect myself?
With a few simple steps, you can help protect your accounts and personal information
from fake Emails and websites:
· Delete suspicious Emails without opening them. If you do open a suspicious
Email, do not open any attachments or click on any link/s it may contain.
· Never provide sensitive account or personal information in response
to an unknown Email and never respond to an email/s you don't know the identity
of the author.
· Install and regularly update virus protection software!
The Final word.
Approach every email as a potential virus carrier and you’ll be a long
way towards protecting your systems from annoying and costly infections.
Viruses are often spread by infecting email address books so even emails from
friends and colleagues could easily be hiding something nasty.
Make sure everyone on your system deletes unsolicited emails and never opens
attachments without being sure what they are.
If in doubt, call the sender and ask if they sent you the email. But above all,
you must have properly installed and maintained anti-virus software active on
your computers.
Always keep your computer's operating system, Virus Protection and Web browser current.