Yahoo Finance Shocking number of email scams blocked every minute
Aussies are receiving an influx of scam emails, and Australia’s biggest telco has revealed it blocks 7,600 scam emails every minute.
Telstra blocked around 332 million incoming scam and unwanted emails to Bigpond customers between January and October this year. According to the telco, that’s more than a third (38 per cent) of all inbound emails.
According to Scamwatch, email is the third most commonly reported mode of attack for scammers (33,287 reports), after phone (51,234) and SMS scams (50,947).
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“Email scams are not only annoying, many are also malicious and may potentially lead to a criminal stealing your money and personal information, accessing your internet banking or attempting to infect your contacts with malware,” Telstra said.
Common scams include emails with malware attachments, and impersonation scams designed to trick customers into handing over their personal and financial information.
Telstra said email attacks had become more convincing and it had seen more bank scams, fake toll road scams and fake offer scams.
What to look out for
Telstra urged Aussies to pay close attention to the sender’s email address and any links included in the email. If the message is being sent by a company, cross check whether the details correspond with previous official emails.
The telco also advised Aussies to be suspicious of unaddressed or generically addressed email.
“Finally, just listen to your gut. If something looks wrong or feels wrong – like typos across the text, colours that don’t seem quite right or an unexpected request for information – double and triple check it,” Telstra said.
If you think an email looks suspicious, don’t reply to it or open any links. If you do click a link, don’t enter your personal information.
Aussies are expected to lose $4 billion to scams in 2022, according to estimates by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
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