Two signs this email is a scam

Australians have been urged to be on their guard against a scam email from people posing as internet provider iinet, warning the scam looks real.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sounded the alarm about the scam on Friday, telling Australians to look for scammers claiming there are issues with their internet account and payment details.

“The emails may look legitimate with the company’s real logos but contain extra letters in the email address or typos. Don’t click on any links and delete the email,” Scamwatch said in a tweet.

The email - purportedly from the iinet billing team - tells victims that iinet was “unable to process” an invoice.

“We are having trouble authorizing your credit card. To ensure that the service will not be interrupted, you need to update your payment details,” the email reads.

Then, it tells victims to “quickly resolve” the problem by heading to a link attacked to log in and then update their details.

However, there are two clear signs the email is a scam: it’s from iinent@accounts.net, which spells iinet incorrectly, and the subject line reads ‘Importand Update’, which spells important incorrectly.

Scamwatch has recorded 62,895 reports of scams in 2021 so far, with $63 million lost.

False billing scams are one of the most costly scams, after investment scams and dating and romance scams, costing Australians a cumulative $12 million.

Phishing scams, which attempt to scrape victims’ details are less costly, costing Australians $660,000. However, they’re by far the most common, with Scamwatch receiving 14,000 reports.

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