[Ellie Baxter]

An Aussie couple who were robbed in Bali are speaking out about how it can happen to anyone.
Anna De Rieu said she and her husband were robbed in Bali, then the thieves used the couple’s details to hack into their myGov account and withdraw $150,000 in government support payments under their name.

Ms De Rieu was blocked from accessing her myGov account which prompted her to phone Centrelink to try and resolve the issue. They were then informed their details and home addresses had been changed multiple times with money taken out in their names.

Ms De Rieu said it took about six months to resolve the issue and she now fears she could be the victim of more hacks in the future.

Several families have fallen victim to scammers defrauding their myGov accounts by accessing and changing their personal and tax information.Through myGov, users can access services including Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office and Medicare.

Ms De Rieu shared that the scammers had claimed payments from flood and pandemic relief to jobseeker.”Every time they would make a claim, they would change (our) address,” she said.

[Claire Halliday]

That’s scary! It seems amazing that the Robodebt initiative was very quick to chase people who allegedly owed money, while some scammers seem to deliberately rort the system and not get identified for ages, if ever…

[Cosmo]

We are continuously being recommended by various government agencies to use multi-factor identification, in fact when I initially set up my MygGov account during Covid, I am sure they insisted on checking me via my mobile. So how it it that someone can change your address on Mygov several times and withdraw $150,000 In your name without a single text message to check that it’s all legit? This seems like a massive Mygov failure to me.

[Fliss]

Yep. These people say they were scammed, but it seems like anyone could do this???? Weied!

[Cosmo]

This really raises the question “can we cancel and eliminate our personal information on MyGov?” I really don’t need a MyGov account now that Covid is past and with this negligence and incompetence by Mygov we are better off without it.

[L. Norris]

In South Australia, I recently paid my car registration. I was required to circle which CTP insurer I preferred. I was happy to do this as I have done over many previous renewals.
But, my question is, why oh why, have I now, for the first time, received an SMS text message to my mobile phone from this CTP insurer. Also for the first time, I received an email from this CTP insurance company to an old outdated email address. Why is the registration department allowing all this information on me, to be collated and used by the Compulsory Third Party Insurance company. This is a first. Too much information is being shared out from government departments to private insurance companies. This is unnecessary profiling and collating of personal details.

[Marten]

I am not prepared to believe and accept the fact that it could happen to anyone as stated, provided one ensures the usual precautions taken when affronted with scam messages.

[Author]

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