Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Police Cyber Fraud Detective Sergeant Craig Windebank

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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Police Cyber Fraud Detective Sergeant Craig Windebank · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf on Mixed one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine thanks to Joyce main Darwin. Yesterday we heard
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  Speaker 1: from listeners regarding a series of scams and claims that
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  Speaker 1: they've had to deal with when it comes to text messages,
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  Speaker 1: some receiving phone calls and different ways. I think you'd
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  Speaker 1: say that scammers are really trying to get their hands
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  Speaker 1: on Territorians money. Now joining us in the studio to
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about some of the
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  Speaker 1: scams that are really going around at the moment and
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  Speaker 1: ways that we can protect ourselves. Northern Territory Police Cyber
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  Speaker 1: Fraud Detective Sergeant Craig Winderbank. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Craig, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you very well? Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: joining us this morning. And you and I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: on numerous occasions about some of the different scams that
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  Speaker 1: Territorians have been victim too. Are there a few different
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  Speaker 1: ones going around at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: There are. It seems like there's quite a variety of
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  Speaker 2: scams that seem to have popped up in the last
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  Speaker 2: month or so that are targeting Territorians. So we're seeing scams,
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  Speaker 2: some of them like pretend to be fake online marketplaces,
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  Speaker 2: maybe eBay or Amazon or things like that, and they're
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  Speaker 2: sending messages to people trying to get them to click
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  Speaker 2: onto links. We've seen other ones where we've got the
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  Speaker 2: fake tech scams where people are pretending to be Big
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  Speaker 2: Pond or someone else like that and then getting access
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  Speaker 2: to your computer. We've also seen a lot of scams
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  Speaker 2: where people are pretending to be police, law enforcement and
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  Speaker 2: that sort of thing and convincing people to pay money
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  Speaker 2: under fake circumstances. For that, it's just quite a few.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I don't know whether my phone for
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  Speaker 1: some reason, I get quite a few different calls that
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  Speaker 1: I think to myself instantly, is this a scam? When
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  Speaker 1: they call through. I've had somebody call through pretend that
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  Speaker 1: they're the tax agency and quite aggressively sort of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: say that I owe money, and I know I'm not alone.
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  Speaker 1: There's been others that have called through and said similar.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and this type of offending. The offenders are really aggressive,
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  Speaker 2: they're demanding, and they get quite a bit of money
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  Speaker 2: from people when they're successful. So it's quite sad.
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  Speaker 1: Greig, what are some of the things that territorians really
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  Speaker 1: need to listen out for or to be aware of.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose the big thing we say is to be
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  Speaker 2: suspicious if you're getting a call like this, this just
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  Speaker 2: doesn't seem quite right, or you're just not quite expecting
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  Speaker 2: the call, or it's just unusual, hang up and call back,
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  Speaker 2: and call back on a number that you know is correct.
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  Speaker 1: We spoke yesterday to a lady called Barbara who had
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  Speaker 1: said that she'd received a phone call from somebody saying
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  Speaker 1: that they were Big Ponned and that they were going
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  Speaker 1: to be helping with her NBN or something along those lines.
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  Speaker 1: They'd then been able to log into her computer. She
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  Speaker 1: said that it didn't quite feel right when she was
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  Speaker 1: giving them some of those details, but you know, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: against her better judgment, she did and they were able
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  Speaker 1: to then hack into her bank account and steal some
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  Speaker 1: of that some of her money. This is really not
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  Speaker 1: an uncommon thing, isn't.
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  Speaker 2: No. That's sort of scam we call the fake tech scam.
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  Speaker 2: When they call up, they'll actually get you to do
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  Speaker 2: something on your computer. They'll get you to go to
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  Speaker 2: a log file and it will show you some errors
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  Speaker 2: on the screen, which convinces people that it's a gene
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  Speaker 2: and call, But every computer has errors on that screen.
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  Speaker 2: It's just something they're relying on. And once they get
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  Speaker 2: you convinced they are a tech scammer, they'll get you
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  Speaker 2: install software and that gives them control of your computer
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  Speaker 2: and visibility of everything on your computer.
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  Speaker 1: So, wow, Craig, what do we do? How do we
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  Speaker 1: make sure aside from trying our best to sort of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, be quite skeptical and second question everything, are
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  Speaker 1: there different things that we really just need to be
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  Speaker 1: aware of, different kinds of phone numbers that are coming
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  Speaker 1: through or anything like that.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, that's quite difficult. We've even seen instances recently where
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  Speaker 2: they've been imitating police station phone numbers and things like
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  Speaker 2: that when they're making these sort of threatening calls. So
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  Speaker 2: it's really hard to say there's a set criteria things
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  Speaker 2: you need to look out for because the offenders are
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  Speaker 2: constantly changing the way that they're offending. So we just
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  Speaker 2: need to be careful. We need to support each other.
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  Speaker 2: If you know something like this is happening, it's really
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  Speaker 2: important you report it. We may not be able to help,
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  Speaker 2: but if you don't report it, we absolutely can't help.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, the more we know about the more.
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  Speaker 1: Can do, and that's the thing as well. It's also
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  Speaker 1: about sort of notifying other people, letting them know what's
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  Speaker 1: going on, so everyone's aware that these scams are actually happening.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, support each other and you know, if you know
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  Speaker 2: a friend who's had a suspicious call or something like that,
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  Speaker 2: have a chat to them about it and make sure
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  Speaker 2: that they're okay and everything's going well.
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  Speaker 1: Craig, would you say that, I mean around the territory,
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  Speaker 1: have we got quite a few people who are victims
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  Speaker 1: of these types of scams?
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  Speaker 2: No, Look, I think compared to the rest of Australia
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  Speaker 2: we're fairly similar. The scams are prolific. They target Australia
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  Speaker 2: very heavily, and that's just because they're successful. They're there
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  Speaker 2: to make money and that's what they're looking at and
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  Speaker 2: Australia is just seen as I suppose an easy target.
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  Speaker 1: Do you I mean, do you have many reports of
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  Speaker 1: this type of thing each day?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting quite a number of reports. I suppose
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  Speaker 2: the reports have increased significantly this year, over past years
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  Speaker 2: and increasingly over the years before. So yeah, it's an
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  Speaker 2: increasing problem and it's not one that's going away.
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  Speaker 1: The show and I know you and I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: before as well about some people going down the path
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  Speaker 1: of intercepting emails changing invoices so they appear as though
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  Speaker 1: they're coming from people who you may be anticipating an
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  Speaker 1: invoice from.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's business email compromise. That's been common for
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  Speaker 2: some time and that's continuing on and that's probably financially
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  Speaker 2: the most significant cyber crime that we see in Australia,
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  Speaker 2: and it's one that businesses really need to be careful with,
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  Speaker 2: working quite a bit with the NT government delivering seminars
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  Speaker 2: and things like that to target groups, trying to educate
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  Speaker 2: people and give them the knowledge they need to avoid
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  Speaker 2: these sort of scams.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's so important and it's such important
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  Speaker 1: work that you guys do, Craig, Is there somewhere where
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  Speaker 1: people can go for a bit more information online if
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  Speaker 1: they are after a genuine website which can provide provide
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  Speaker 1: them with some advice.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, absolutely so. Cyberdut gov do AU is the place
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  Speaker 2: to go both to report cyber crimes and to get
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  Speaker 2: information about what are the current cyber crimes and how
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  Speaker 2: to avoid them.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Craig, always appreciate your time and I know from
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  Speaker 1: my own personal experience that you guys work incredibly hard
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  Speaker 1: to try to help Territorians when they have been impacted
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  Speaker 1: by cybercrime. So I'd certainly say to anybody out there listening,
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  Speaker 1: if there is something that's happened to you, you do
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  Speaker 1: need to make sure that you go to that website
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  Speaker 1: and report it and do your best to make others
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  Speaker 1: aware of what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeh jeers, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Craig, Thanks so much for your time this morning. We
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Northern Territory Police Cyber Fraud Detective there
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  Speaker 1: are Sergeant Craig Winderbank