Put yourself here. The banks of the beautiful Murray River, the smell of fresh coffee and bacon and eggs rolls being cooked by the Rotary Club. Perfect weather. This was the setting Mildura, in the north-east of Victoria, delivered when IDCARE held its Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinic at the Sunraysia Farmers Market on 5 February.

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Our roving CROC ambassador, Rob Blackmore, spent some time in the Mildura community before the markets, interacting with the locals who had reached out to IDCARE for assistance after they had been scammed or experienced identity theft. Rob spoke to a client, let's call her Susan, who lost$100,000 in a Bitcoin and ADSupply scam. She has had to work longer hours in a bid to buildup her savings once again. Susan was very appreciate of IDCARE's personal visit to her community. We will be sharing more of her story in our new podcast segment (watch this space).

Rob's Outreach truck - which is called Chuck - generated a lot of interest during the set up at the markets and many came across to learn more about IDCARE's important role in the community. Visitors shared their stories of near misses, including "Dave" who had his bank stop a suspicious transfer between accounts when they noticed the IP address of the computer was offshore. This saved Dave from a $30,000 loss and highlights the valuable role banks have to play in preventing fraud.

There were numerous questions around how scammers can spoof telephone numbers and create fake emails. The federal Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, also popped in and was interested in scam awareness. She has taken a pile of IDCARE's brochures back to her office. The independent candidate for Mallee, Sophie Baldwin's, staff also popped in for a visit and were keen to learn about IDCARE and the role it plays in communities.

For Rob, a highlight of the market was meeting a new potential CROC Cyber Champion who was eager to use her skills to share advice about scams.

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