Services Australia has announced it will be stepping up its fraud detection work to identify any scams or fraudulent activity relating to the one-off payments which will soon be available from the economic stimulus package.
Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert said $4.8 billion had been allocated to provide a one-off $750 stimulus payment to pensioners, social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders and that the payments will be made soon.
“Payments being delivered through Services Australia are secure and designed to not attract fraudulent behaviour,” Mr Robert said.
”I want to remind everyone who may be eligible for the one-off payment and have existing bank account details with Services Australia that they do not have to do anything — Services Australia will process the payment after 31 March.”
He said that in order to help prevent fraudulent behaviour, Services Australia would not be proactively contacting anyone asking for personal details.
“If you need to update your details, you can do this online through your myGov account, or by calling Services Australia directly on 132 300,” Mr Robert said.
“If you receive an email purporting to be from Services Australia or Centrelink about the stimulus payments, it is most likely to be a scam,” he said.
“Services Australia will not communicate via email about this payment.”
He said Services Australia had specialist teams and sophisticated fraud detection programs operating in real time to prevent fraudulent claims.
