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Aussies warned of $750 myGov scam text: ‘One-time payment’

With the federal budget promising cost-of-living relief, Aussies could easily be fooled by this new scam.

Eliza Bavin
·Personal Finance Editor
·2-min read
A composite image of a crown of people and a copy of the myGov scam text.
Another myGov scam is doing the rounds. (Source: Getty / Twitter @AmyRemeikis)

The Labor government has promised cost-of-living relief in the federal budget to help those struggling to keep their heads above water, but Aussies have been warned about scammers looking to take advantage.

A new scam text, purporting to be from myGov, claims Aussies can receive a one-time payment of $750 to “help with their living expenses”.

But the text, which even includes a link that appears to lead to the myGov site, is a fake and aims to steal Aussies’ hard-earned cash.

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Scammers often impersonate myGov to fool Aussies who rely on government services.

Budget to crack down on scam texts

The budget will provide $10 million over four years to establish a new SMS sender ID registry.

This registry will act as a blocking list and help stop scammers from impersonating major brands and government agencies such as Linkt, myGov, Australia Post or your bank.

Almost half of Australia’s population received a fake SMS message in the past year alone, with Aussies losing an estimated $3.1 billion to scams.

Text messages were the leading contact method for scammers, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, making up one in three scam reports, compared to 29 per cent for phone calls.

The new registry will let brands register their sender ID and telcos will then be able to block messages that aren’t legitimate from trying to use that sender ID.

The federal government asked the Australian Communications and Media Authority to investigate the new registry back in February, which has been successful in stopping scammers in other countries.

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