New text message scam costs ultra-cautious accountant mother-of-three THOUSANDS – here’s how to avoid it happening to YOU
- Sydney mother-of-three falls victim to common everyday text message scam
- On Wednesday Diana Nikitenko received message from road toll operator Linkt
- However, this turned out to be a scam and left her $3,000 out of pocket
- Ms Nikitenko hopes to prevent others from making to same mistake she did
Accountant Diana Nikitenko (pictured), a mother-of-three from Bondi in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is normally vigilant when it comes to checking for potential scams
A mother who fell victim to a common everyday scam which cost her thousands is hoping to prevent others from suffering the same fate.
Accountant Diana Nikitenko, a mother-of-three from Bondi in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is normally vigilant when it comes to checking for potential scams.
However, on Wednesday, Ms Nikitenko received a text message that claimed to be road toll operator Linkt, which ultimately left her $3,000 out of pocket.
The scam text claimed she had a failed payment for a toll charge and was required to settle the payment.
‘If it was any other company I wouldn’t have been a victim, but I used Linkt only 10 days before to update my details so I thought maybe something was wrong with my account,’ said Ms Nikitenko.
An example of the text message scam posing as a road toll operator
Additional examples of text message scams the public should look out for
‘I googled this number before I made the payment and there was no scam alert so it was making sense to me.’
Upon clicking on the link, everything seemed legitimate and did not raise any flags.
But thethe following day, her account revealed $3,000 had vanished in mystery items purchased from Sephora.
‘Even when I called the bank saying I didn’t make the transaction to Sephora I didn’t link the two together…It was very smart. The perfect scam,’ Ms Nikitenko told 7NEWS.com.au.
Ms Nikitenko (pictured) told 7News.com.au: ‘I will admit I made a stupid mistake but at least I can inform other people’
After contacting her bank, NAB, they have since disputed the transactions on her behalf.
Ms Nikitenko added: ‘I will admit I made a stupid mistake but at least I can inform other people.’
On Linkt’s website, their message to users includes: ‘We will never send you an email or SMS requesting you to reply with your financial information such as your credit or debit card details, or your log in details including your password.’
An ACCC spokesperson said more than $120,000 had been lost as a result of these scams.
They said that Scamwatch had received a significant increase in reports from victims.
The advice from the ACCC when dealing with these scams included: ‘If in doubt as to whether you have an unpaid toll, independently navigate to the homepage of the company the text message claims to be from and search for unpaid toll notices for your license plate.’
Scamwatch shared a public alert in July regarding the scam.
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