How one-third of Australians are falling victim to financial scams

Almost one-third of Australians have been hit by a financial scam, new research has found.

Rate City conducted the research.

Research Director at RateCity.com.au, Sally Tindall, told Dee Dee Dunleavy what Australians should do to prevent it from happening.

“Request a copy of your credit file for free once every 12 months but that law is changing and soon it will be once every three months,” she said.

“When you google something you want to buy, you can get sent to all sorts of sites.

“Make sure that in the top left hand corner in the URL, first and foremost there is a padlock icon in that URL.

“That says it is a secure site … but try and use sites you are comfortable with.”

Ms Tindall said she was surprised with the results.

“Interesting enough what the survey results found was that it wasn’t just older Australians being targeted,” she said.

“The age bracket that had the highest proportion of victims of financial fraud was actually 35 to 44 year olds.

“It shows it can happen to anyone at any time.”

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