Fake phishing email puts me back on scam alert

It arrived late in the day when my powers were low.

An email purporting to be a message sent via LinkedIn flashed up in my inbox. That's odd, I thought. Having zero interest in who's climbing the greasy corporate pole, I never engage with the platform and struggled to remember why I'd signed up in the first place all those years ago.

Curiosity got the better of me. Was this that pushy recruiter from another media company who'd pestered me just after the pandemic and wouldn't take my resolute silence for "not interested"? After her emails and voice messages went unanswered, she'd pursued me on LinkedIn. That got no response either.

I clicked on the box marked "View message" and was directed to what appeared to be a legitimate login page. It asked for a user name. I assumed it was my email address. Password? No idea so I typed in an old one.

Snap! I'd been phished, all in the space of the minute in which reflex replaced reason.

Shame fought with relief as I realised this was a test of my vigilance sent out by the company's cybersecurity people. In my haste I'd ignored all the red flags and days later, I'm still red-faced about it.

The digital fire drill reinforced a valuable lesson: stop and think before clicking on anything you're sent. I'm grateful for the reminder.

Last year's figures suggest Australians are wising up to scams. In 2022, we lost $3.1 billion to them, last year that came down to $2.7 billion. Still way too much but moving in the right direction, especially seeing the number of scams reported last year had reached a new record of just over 300,000. Phishing scams cost Australians almost $26 million in 2023.

The saddest thing in these numbers is that people over 65 were the only age group to have lost more money to scams in 2023 than they did in 2024.

It's also sad that scams and their annoying cousin, telemarketing, are changing the way we communicate. The calls come through so thick and fast on our phones, if we don't know the number, we don't pick up. Scammers and spammers have killed off the phone call.

"You going to get that?" someone asked me a few weeks ago when my phone started ringing. "No, it's just the daily 3pm scam call." Same number, purportedly from Western Australia, at the same time every day, with no voicemail ever left. Full marks for persistence - it's even followed me overseas.

Text and messaging apps are not much better. Join a WhatsApp group and before you know it, there's a flood of messages urging you to invest in crypto or link up with "Cindy" in Taipei, who's convinced you have much in common, even though you've never met. No thanks.

Their frequency seems to have fallen off lately but I'm still emptying the SMS history full of threats to pay tolls for roads I've never driven on - or click the link to arrange delivery of the parcel I haven't ordered or receive "the rebate" from the "Tax Office".

All this has eroded trust in the device - no point calling it a phone if we rarely use it as one - that's meant to make life easier and keep us connected.

My lapse with the faux phishing email has also shaken the trust in myself and my ability to detect a scam before it's too late, which has shamed me into greater vigilance.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Have you or anyone you know fallen victim to a scam? Do you answer the phone when you don't know the number? Do you report scam calls and texts when they arrive on your devices? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Supermarket giant Coles has revealed it has more than a dozen freehold sites where a development application has not been launched as the competition watchdog probes the issue of land banking in the concentrated sector.

- There's nothing more Aussie than a snake slithering onto a plane and being wrangled off the aircraft by a TV star. Virgin Australia flight 1482 to Perth was scheduled to take off from Broome Airport at 10.30am last Thursday when a snake was discovered onboard.

- An independent review has cleared Wisetech Global co-founder Richard White of allegations made against him, including bullying and undisclosed workplace relationships.

THEY SAID IT: "Scam losses remain far too high and we urge Australians to remain alert to the threat of scammers and report any suspicious activity." - Stephen Jones, Financial Services Minister

YOU SAID IT: In 2007, when Garry was news director at Channel 9, he sacked Alan Jones. Years later, the broadcaster got his revenge when Garry was sacked from his radio job.

"Good on you for delivering a fateful blow to Jones' ego," writes Rob. "Perhaps the era of the shock jock has peaked, but Ben Fordham still predates over Sydney's airwaves. And although I have never listened to Kyle Sandilands he seems to attract hordes of mindless followers who relish his sexist and puerile toilet humour. I only know of his antics through the efforts of Paul Barry on Media Watch, who seems obsessed with getting rid of him. Understandable, but futile while the punters still tune in."

John writes: "I have never needed anyone to tell me what my opinion is. Not Alan Jones, not Ray Hadley, not Derryn Hinch, not Neil Mitchell, not John Laws. Unsurprisingly, my opinion was often somewhat different to theirs."

"Shocking as this may seem, I've never actually listened to these shock jocks," writes Lai. Perhaps I had a certain smug sense of superiority about me, not being influenced by these self-centred blowhards. Schadenfreude is indeed sweet."

Robbie writes: "Like Garry Linnell, I was once sacked by Alan Jones. I was producing Phillip Adams' late-night program on 2UE in 1988. Geraldine Doogue wanted to interview me as a draft resister on the anniversary of the end of Australia's participation in the Vietnam War. So I wore army battle greens, some red and yellow shoes (the colour of the North Vietnamese flag) and a badge that said, 'Shame, Fraser, Shame'. Coming out of the men's toilets we ran into each other in the corridor. 'How dare you disgrace the Queen's uniform,' he thundered! I didn't really know who he was. 'F*** off,' I replied and marched on into Geraldine's studio. The next day I was ordered to pack my belongings and given 10 minutes to exit the building!"

"I heard Alan Jones a few times, then turned him off," writes Sue. "There was a move which began in the '70s where, over time, the journalist became more important than the story. This did not work for me. I was not interested. Alan Jones was the ultimate in this. Whatever story he was supposedly commenting on, and his stories became about comments that other people had made, his two-year-old temper tantrum response was the only thing that mattered - to him."