More than 300,000 Australian motorists have reported receiving texts by scammers posing as toll road giant Linkt, claiming the recipient has unpaid toll fees.
One scam text said: “Past Due Final Reminder: Please be aware of your last unpaid toll trip.”
It then provided a link to a fake Linkt site where the recipient could “resolve (the) matter” within two business days.
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Another text advised the recipient they had an overdue notification.
“Please pay your toll immediately to avoid fines,” the text read.
Both recipients were Linkt customers, though 7NEWS understands many non-customers have received the texts.
“We are aware of an SMS phishing scam that is using the Linkt and Transurban brands,” a Transurban spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.
More than five million customers had been contacted and given information on how to protect themselves against scams, and how to identify genuine Linkt communications, the spokesperson said.
“We will never ask you to reply to an email or SMS with your financial information or personal information,” they said.
“If we need you to manage your account, we will always direct you to log into your account directly via linkt.com.au or the Linkt app.
“Our cybersecurity team is working with telecommunications providers to identify and block phone numbers sending these texts, and in the last year, Linkt customers have reported over 335,000 scam messages to us.
“As a result, we’ve worked with telecommunications providers to block over 20,000 unique mobile numbers and over 1900 fraudulent URLs.
“If you receive a message from someone claiming to be Linkt or Transurban that doesn’t seem quite right, don’t click on the link.”
Linkt customers should only use the Linkt website or its affiliated Linkt and LinktGO apps.
How to avoid scams
Australians lost a huge $74 million to online scams last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.
It says a website is probably a scam if it:
- Sells items at significantly lower prices than usual or when compared to other sites;
- Has something unusual about the payment method, such as only offering a single payment option or asking for payment via gift cards or Bitcoin;
- Only includes positive reviews or reviews light on detail;
- Includes an urgent warning or error message asking you to click a link; and
- Advertises a way to make quick, easy money with little or no risk or effort.
Report scams to the platform it has happened on, and to the ACCC via the report a scam page to help alert others.
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