Warning to Telstra customers: ‘Avoid disruption of your service’

Telstra customers are being targeted by a new email scam. (Source: Getty/ACMA)

Have you received an unexpected email, claiming to be from Telstra, asking you to complete a form? Well, it could be a scam.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) sounded the alarm and said it was aware of an “emerging email scam” using Telstra’s logo and branding.

The email tells customers to complete a know your customer (KYC) compliance form at their earliest chance to “avoid disruption of your Telstra service”.

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“The email falsely advises that this is required due to a new ACMA policy. If you’ve received this email, do not download or open the attachment or any links in the message,” ACMA said.

“If you are in any doubt about whether an email you have received from Telstra is genuine, contact Telstra via its publicly available contact details or verified app.”

Here's what Telstra customers should look out for. (Source: ACMA)

According to Telstra, in addition to being asked to complete the form, the scam email also asks the recipient to take a picture of their identity documents (such as their driver’s licence) and upload them or send them to an email address controlled by the criminals.

“You should never send sensitive, personal information via electronic mail, and absolutely never take pictures of your identity documents and share them in this manner,” Telstra said.

Telstra has a list of active scams on its website, including other email scams, text-message and phone scams, and online scams.

Last year, Telstra revealed it blocked around 332 million incoming scams and unwanted emails to its Bigpond customers between January and October. This accounted for more than a third of all inbound emails.

Aussies have already lost more than $53 million to scams this year. Text messages were the most commonly reported scam, followed by email and phone scams.

If you receive a suspicious email, Telstra said to check if it was really them contacting you and to report the scam to them.

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