The simple trick scammers use to drain your account

31-year-old Sophie* was watching TV when the text that would almost defraud her of thousands of dollars came in.

"I had been watching Twilight with my friend and I got a text telling me that I needed to pay a small admin fee for a 'COVID passport'," she recalls. "At this point I hadn't really been keeping up with the news¡­ I had one eye on Twilight and one eye on my phone, so I paid it and didn't really think about it again."

The next day, Sophie got a call from someone purporting to be from her bank, who told her that she had fallen victim to a text scam. The caller told her the link she clicked on the text had been used to access her bank accounts, and that she needed to move her money to avoid it being stolen.?

"There was a lot of pressure on me to move the money in a very customer service-y way," Sophie remembers. "They told me someone was trying to transfer money to Pakistan or somewhere from my account. I was pushing back and asking questions, but they were very overwhelming in terms of the [urgency]."?

A stressful situation

Sophie complied and transferred money to a new account. When the caller asked her to make a second transfer, she realised she was being scammed. The caller hung up on her, and Sophie quickly phoned her bank. Luckily, she eventually found out that the thousands of dollars the scammer had taken could be claimed on insurance, but it was nonetheless an extremely stressful situation.

"This was over Christmas, and I did not know if I was going to get the money back. It was over half my savings," Sophie says.?

As a tech and internet savvy millennial, Sophie felt shocked she had been duped. But the scammers had pushed the right buttons to get her to act before she properly think things through.

"I felt so stupid and self-loathing for falling for the text scam that I missed the bigger scam," she says.

But Sophie is just one of a growing number of people who have fallen victim to scams. Research by CommBank shows that three in five Australians report they have personally been a victim of a scam or know someone who has.?

Scams on the rise

"Unfortunately, scams are on the rise," says James Roberts, General Manager of Group Fraud Management at CommBank. "Last year, Australians lost $2 billion to scams according to The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC)."

Data from CommBank shows that three in five Australians say they have become more concerned about scams over the last twelve months. 64% say they receive more scam attempts today than 12 months ago.?

"It's awful to see the number of scams taking place at the moment," says Roberts. "To put things into perspective, our research tells us scams are more prevalent than ever before ¨C with the average Australian receiving over 250 scam attempts per year."

That's an average of five scam calls, emails or messages a week.

"Anyone that has been victim of a scam will tell you it's had a big impact on their life," adds Roberts. "That's because the true cost of scams is much more than the dollar figure; scams also cause serious emotional harm to individuals, families and businesses."

So with scam attempts increasing, how can you keep yourself safe?

"Understanding the different types of scams is the first step in being able to spot the red flags because each scam has its own warning signs," Roberts says.

"If you are talking generally then unsolicited contact or things you didn't ask anyone to do could be a warning sign it's a scam. That can be a message or phone call out of the blue, usually with some form of time urgency or pressure to make you do something you ordinarily wouldn't do."

If you're ever in doubt about whether someone you're speaking to is the real deal, you can always hang up and call your bank back using the number listed on their website. That's what Sophie wishes she had done.

"The big mistake I made, that everyone in my situation should do, is that I didn't hang up and call my bank back."?

There are simple steps you can take to stay CommBank Safe:

1. Stop. Does a call or text seem off?
2. Check. Unsure if something is legitimate? Ask friends or family or contact the organisation the message claims to be from.
3. Reject. If it's not them, block the texter, delete the email or hang up on the caller. Change your passwords.

For more ways to safeguard your information and find out more, visit?CommBank Safe.

*Names have been changed for privacy reasons.

?