Back to school: Protecting your kids from scams

Scammers go after all sorts of Australians, including children and teenagers. Here are some of the scams targeting young people – and what you can do to shield them from danger as they go back to school.

For anyone with a phone or email address, scam attempts have become a part of everyday life. And as members of the Police Bank community know, cyber-criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way they operate and manipulate their victims.

Unfortunately, children and teenagers aren’t outside the scope of these fraudsters.

Data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch shows children and teenagers lost more than $360,000 to scams last year, with more than 1500 reports to the watchdog. The true number is likely to be higher, given not all scams are reported.

With those startling statistics in mind, we’ve taken a look at three of the scams targeting younger Australians and what you and your kids can do to evade them.

1. Social media scams

Social media scams involve fraudsters setting up fake accounts on popular platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, to try to gain information, trust and eventually money.

By befriending or following young people, the scammers can learn a lot about their chosen victims, including what they look like, who their friends are, what their interests are and where they live or hang out. These details can be used either to gain the trust of the young person or, in some cases, to blackmail them.

Ways of protecting your kids include reminding them to keep a private or locked social media profile, never to befriend strangers online, and never to send pictures or money to someone they’ve met online.

2.Retail or shopping scams

Retail scams may involve someone impersonating real companies or brands to convince people to part with their banking or credit card information. For example, someone may claim to be offering designer goods at a heavily discounted price but have no legitimate items for sale at all.

To protect your kids, consider warning them to be skeptical of low or heavily discounted offers, to check online vendors are registered by looking up their ABN, and to be wary of sites that have been set up recently. You can check when a website was established at ICANN.

3. Dating and romance scams

Dating and romance scams involve fraudsters pretending to have romantic feelings for their victim – again, to gain their trust and access to their money. These scams tend to start on social media sites, too and often involve a scammer pretending to be someone young and attractive. After a while, they may ask for money to address an urgent situation.

To help avoid these scams, think about talking to teenagers about their approach to dating and romance in a world where people are increasingly meeting online. You can encourage them to be extra wary of requests from strangers, especially if they show a lot of interest and affection early, after speaking only online or on an app or messaging service. Finally, it’s important to tell them never to send money to someone they don’t know.

In an age of online dating – even among teenagers on social sites – fake profiles are becoming harder to spot; however, professional-looking photos, limited comments or friends, and newly set up profiles are red flags.

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