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The consumer watchdog is ramping up its warnings about scammers who are targeting older victims to pay for alleged services with iTunes gift cards.
The ACCC says more than 1,200 people have lost $540,000 so far this year to scammers who ask for serial numbers of the cards and then quickly sell them elsewhere for profit.
The fraudsters are posing as representatives from the Australian Tax Office, Telstra and Centrelink and cold call victims offering to help fast track pension payments or to resolve technical problems.
One victim of the scam, 74-year-old Richard from regional Victoria, said he normally is able to spot scams quite confidently.
"There was a computer-generated voice saying it was Centrelink in Canberra, and there'd been a cock-up in their system and I was owed $2,480 in back pension, and I was to phone this number ASAP," Richard said.
"[The man who I spoke to] was quite convincing, and said that to retrieve this money, I had to buy $300 worth of iTunes.
"I went to Coles, bought the tickets, came home and phone him back. I had to give him a swag of numbers so he could validate them."
Once the scam caller had the codes, they would have sold the value of the card over the internet and moved on to their next victim.
"If you told me this story I wouldn't believe it. I would say nobody could be that bloody stupid," Richard said.
Scammers targeting older Australians
Deputy ACCC chair Delia Rickard said scammers typically create a sense of fear or urgency to manipulate their victims.
"A lot of people do find it embarrassing, but I think what we have to remember is just how good scammers are at convincing people and turning off that rational side of their brain," Ms Rickard said.
"They'll pretend to be the Tax Office telling you that you owe tax, they'll pretend to be Telstra asking to help them catch a hacker, or possibly Centrelink saying you're entitled to more benefits.
"They will then ask you to go and purchase iTunes gift cards. It could be hundreds of dollars, but sometimes thousands of dollars' worth."
Ms Rickard said the best practice to follow if you receive a call asking for payment through an iTunes gift card is to hang up immediately.
"Often they will keep you on the phone for the entire process, walk you down to the supermarket, wait while you get the cards and then get you to read the numbers back," she said.
"I think the main group we see falling victim to this are the over-65s, and on the whole they're not too familiar with iTunes gift cards unless they buy them for grandkids."
The ACCC is now working with sellers of iTunes gift cards to report bulk purchases that might look suspicious.
Follow Peter Ryan on Twitter @peter_f_ryan and on his Main Street blog.
Topics: consumer-protection, law-crime-and-justice, fraud-and-corporate-crime, australia