Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Online scams are something that I need to raise with this House. Incidents of consumer fraud may not be reported for a number of reasons. For example, victims may not be aware that they have been scammed, may not be aware of law enforcement interest, may feel responsible for becoming a victim and may not know who the scam should be reported to. Due to the anonymity of the internet, scamming can be incredibly easy. If you are not careful, you could get scammed out of your time, your money or both.

Scammers go to great lengths to gain your interest and trust such as by sharing personal information. Scammers may take months to build what seems to be the romance of a lifetime, may even pretend to book flights to visit you, but they never actually come. SCAMwatch report that once the scammers have gained your trust they will be either subtly or directly after your money, your gifts, your bank details and they will pretend to need these for various reasons. I recommend that people follow the advice of SCAMwatch, which is to talk to an independent friend, relative or fair trading agency before you send any money online. The advice that you should always follow is: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.