As Black Friday and festive season sales draw nearer, Assistant Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie urged Aussies to be alert for cybercriminals who are seeking to steal money and personal information via online shopping fraud. 

“We all love browsing online for a bargain and it’s a convenient way for many of us to do our Christmas shopping at this time of year, but if you are not alert you could get taken in by fraudulent deals,” Minister Hastie said. 

According to the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan, Australians are expected to spend more than $58 billion on pre-Christmas shopping. A significant proportion of these expenditures will come from online sales. 

Aside from this, the last financial year has seen over 11,000 reports of online shopping cybercrime, making up about 17% of all reports to the ACSC’s ReportCyber. Those aged 25-45 made up nearly half of all victims of online shopping fraud. 

Businesses are already recognising the ACSC’s warnings as the Australian Retailers Association partners up with the ACSC to promote secure online shopping. 

“Just as Australians are picky about where they shop in the real world, they also need to choose their online stores wisely so they’re not exploited or targeted,” said Assistant Minister Hastie. 

“Watch out for cybercriminals who use tricks like selling products that don’t exist, impersonating well-known brands but offering spectacular sales, or asking for personal and payment information they don’t need.”

As part of the ‘Act Now, Stay Secure’ cyber security campaign, the ACSC has compiled an online security shopping list for Australians to use ahead of this festive season. 

“We know from the recent ACSC Annual Cyber Threat Report 2020-21 that the complexity and sophistication of cyber threats continues to rise,” Assistant Minister Hastie said. 

“Australians are expected to spend billions this festive season, the ACSC recommends only buying from trusted sellers, always using secure payment methods such as PayPal or credit card at checkout, and never clicking on a link in an email or SMS to verify an order.” 

 Source: Department of Defence Media Release

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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