Scammers have targeted the Western Australian Consumer Protection Awards which were announced online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Lanie Chopping said the scammers tried to hijack the live stream on Facebook and also tried to lure viewers away from other live events being run by universities in Australia.
“Shortly before our awards were due to start, we became aware of several Facebook profiles attempting to divert viewers to a different page by posting links to what they claimed to be the ‘CP Awards live event’,” Ms Chopping said.
“This happened in the comments section beneath the event’s banner image.”
She said the links led to a fake website that was branded with the CP Awards images and a media player.
“Clicking the play button led potential victims to a website claiming login was required and to click a button to create an account. The ultimate aim was to divert them to a ‘music and video’ subscription page that required credit card details,” Ms Chopping said.
“Fortunately, we had a team of moderators working on the event who were able to delete the comments and ban the profiles and, to our knowledge, nobody has handed over personal information or lost any money in this phishing attempt.”
She said Consumer Protection was later made aware that the scammers were targeting another Facebook Live event in Perth hosted by a higher-education facility that was occurring at the same time. The scammers then went on to target an event being held by a university in eastern Australia.
“WA ScamNet at Consumer Protection has not been aware of scammers targeting live events on social media in this way and public warnings will now be issued about live streaming scams,” Ms Chopping said.
Normally an in-person event, the Consumer Protection Awards were held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
