Scammers are becoming ever more resourceful and the latest scam targeting Google Calendar is incredibly shrewd.
As long as the scammer knows your email address, they are able to set up an event invite inside your Google Calendar, which in the description invites you to take a survey or claim a cash reward. The event invite should trigger an email or smartphone push notification that alerts you to the scammers event.
Unsurprisingly, the link included prompts you to enter your personal and financial information, which is then used by the scammers to defraud you of thousands of dollars.
Australians lost $48 million to cyber thieves between January and August last year, according to Stay Smart Online. And with many scams going unreported, these were the known losses from about 38,000 incidents.
Stay Smart Online says more than six million Australians – or about one in four – were affected by cybercrime last year. And in the ongoing battle to identify scams and warn consumers of tactics, scammers’ degree of sophistication presents ongoing challenges.
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