"The scariest part about getting scammed was not realising it was happening in the first place. Perhaps naively, I never thought I would be the victim of a cyber scam. I'm reasonably digitally literate and have had it drilled into me to be wary of phishing emails and strange text messages. I've even received training at my workplace on how to safeguard yourself against hacking."
"Once doing so, I was sent to a page that looked extremely similar to my bank's online services. Same colours, same font, same banner head. I scrolled through a range of options for how I could redeem my so called points, including smartwatches and speakers. Even though I wasn't aware my bank had a points system which expired each year, it wasn't shocking to me. My phone service accumulates points that can be used towards items."
"With little consideration, I clicked on a watch and proceeded to the checkout. This was where they got me. I was then prompted to log into my account using my banking credentials, and to authorise a $2.99 transaction for shipping in my app. In this way, the scammers managed to authorise a cardless cash transaction in my account without me realising a thing."
I received a convincing SMS while on holiday claiming 12,805 awards points would expire, sent from a generic mobile number with a link. I clicked the link without scrutinising it and was taken to a page that closely mimicked my bank’s online services, with redemption options like smartwatches. I selected a watch and was prompted to log in and authorise a $2.99 shipping charge via my banking app. The scammers used that authorization and credentials to execute a cardless cash withdrawal from my account. Digital literacy and workplace training did not prevent the attack because distraction and assumptions loosened my guard.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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