Technology makes life easier, but exposes us to ID theft

[bear]

Technology has made our lives easier, but it's also left us more exposed than ever to having our identity stolen.

Adelaide couple Sarah and Aaron experienced exactly that, and were living in fear of what would come next after Sarah's myGov account was hacked last year.

"I was locked out and thought I had possibly done something to be locked out from it," Sarah said.

"I went into a Centrelink office and asked them to help me unlock it and that's when we found out that it had been hacked."

But the damage had been done.

The family says hackers changed Sarah's bank details, address, email and phone number, then amended some of their old tax returns to get money, and also tried to steal their superannuation.

Technology has made our lives easier, but it's also left us more exposed than ever to having our identity stolen.Adelaide couple Sarah and Aaron experienced exactly that, and were living in fear of what would come next after Sarah's MyGov account was hacked last year. The family was being forced to repay the thousands of stolen dollars back to the government.

The changes also meant the family missed out on Centrelink payments.

"So they've also made victims of flood claims, single parenting payments, changes that our kids have lived outside of Australia, which neither of us or the kids ever have," the couple said.

"So yeah, they've been able to rack up quite a bill which now we have to pay that back."

Technology has made our lives easier, but it's also left us more exposed than ever to having our identity stolen.

The family was being forced to repay the thousands of stolen dollars back to the government.

But after A Current Affair became involved, Centrelink stopped making the couple repay the hackers' debts, and refunded the money they'd already paid.

Eight months on, the family's accounts were still frozen.

"If it's something we could do on the app or online we actually have to ring up and gain access for them to unlock it while we can do that," Aaron said.

Sydney Buyers Agent Kahla also received a worrying message from MyGov."I got an email from MyGov to say that... I had re-registered myself for GST and an ABN had been reinstated and I hadn't done that," Kahla said.

"My accountant and I went through my ATO profile and found that my bank details had been changed to the hacker's bank details. My mailing address had been changed to the hacker's mailing address."

"I got an email from myGov to say that... I had re-registered myself for GST and an ABN had been reinstated and I hadn't done that," Kahla said.

"My accountant and I went through my ATO profile and found that my bank details had been changed to the hacker's bank details. My mailing address had been changed to the hacker's mailing address."

Kahla was a victim of the Medibank hack last year, but other than that, has no idea how the scammers could have got access to her account.

"I thought I had protected myself but somewhere along the line they have got enough information to hack me and the only hack I am aware of is the Medibank hacking."

Kahla eventually learned that it was her ATO account scammers targeted, and that sadly for victims of identity theft, there really is no silver bullet.

One service that has been set up to help is ID Care. Managing Director David Lacey says scammers target people during tax time, knowing full well they'll be accessing services like MyGov.

After days of calling various agencies, her accounts remained frozen, and she feels exposed.

"I feel like I'm pissing in the wind," Kahla said.

"I don't feel like my voice is being heard. I feel like I have a significant problem. It's like leaving the key in the front door and waiting for someone to turn it and anyone can turn it at any time."

One service that has been set up to help is ID Care.

Managing Director David Lacey says scammers target people during tax time, knowing full well they'll be accessing services like myGov.

"Since June we've had a tenfold increase in the number of people coming to us who have experienced impersonation of the tax office or myGov and pure and simple that's because it's tax season," Lacey said.

He says that while most of the time hackers get in because the victim has fallen for a scam, there are cases where the cause can't be identified.

"There's a very hefty cohort in the community who have no idea how the criminals got their data and they're having to... work out what else is going on with my name that I don't know about right now, so they're playing the detective."

Kahla, Sarah and Aaron think the government needs to better protect our data, and also have a better system in place for those people who suffer a breach.

"We think in Australia we are being looked after but I think that's just I think we're living in denial," Kahla said.

"Very worried who knows what they can do with it, they could be scamming other people under our name, they could be making other accounts they could do anything," Sarah said.

Statement from Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen:

"Services Australia takes the security of customer information very seriously and has robust protections in place.

myGov remains secure and has not been compromised. It's an unfortunate reality that opportunistic scammers steal identity information to carry out fraudulent activities.

While we can't comment on individual cases for privacy reasons, we've reached out to these customers to provide support and will fully investigate any potential fraud.

Services Australia doesn't hold customers liable for any payments that are as a result of fraudulent activity by a malicious third party."

9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/mygov-account-hacked-adelaide-woman-hackers-create-heartache-for-adelaide-couple/4fd3205d-e644-4b1f-a574-3fbc18a67350

[JJJ88]

Scamming bastards. I hope they find them and throw the book at them! It makes me think twice about being 'connected' on the internet.

J