Online scammers looting Australians through ‘Remote Access’

Online scammers have come up with an innovated 'remote access' to con Australians of millions of dollars. And many have fallen, victim. The consumer watchdog says a more elaborate version of the old 'remote access' con has caught many Australians off guard.

Reports highlight criminals impersonating police or Telstra staff working with the authorities, claiming the victim's computer has already been hacked by scammers and they can help track them down. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest scams report states that victims are tricked into providing access to their computer and sending money so the scammers can be 'traced'. The report highlights an elderly woman lost almost $30,000 after being asked to help other pensioners by tracking the flow of money via iTunes cards. "The money lost to remote access scams almost doubled to $4.76 million in 2018. That amount was lost by 881 people, although the total number of remote access scam reports to the ACCC increased by 31 per cent to 11,344.

Overall, Australians lost a record of $489.7 million to scams in 2018, up from the $340 million reported to the ACCC and other government agencies the previous year.