IDCARE has been inundated with calls from people who have received a text message scam referring to a $200 Medicare rebate. The text message appears to come from Medicare and has a link that takes you to a webpage. Once on the page you are requested to fill in basic personal information, your Medicare number and details about your GP and previous visits and prescriptions. IDCARE measures risks of future identity misuse based on the nature of the credentials compromised. Information requested in this scam text message would be considered of a high risk nature to potential misuse around your myGov/Medicare account.
Once you have acted upon these recommended steps, the risk will be greatly reduced. However, please read over the additional information in this email for tips on how to mitigate against potential ongoing risks.
Be vigilant about flow-on telephone calls.
For more information and updates please visit the Department of Human Services (DHS) website.
Please also see our Fact Sheets on;
A year in review & where we get our fundingIt’s hard to believe that since 2014, IDCARE has responded to over 275,900 client engagements from people who experienced a cyber-enabled crime.
Read more...
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QLD: 07 3555 5900
ACT & NSW: 02 8999 3356
VIC: 03 7018 2366
NT, SA & WA : 08 7078 7741
Mon - Fri: 10am - 7pm NZST
AKL: 09 884 4440
IDCARE as a registered charity does not ask individuals to donate or pay for our front line services. We are not a charity that can receive tax deductible donations.
We rely on organisations that care enough about you to care about us to keep our charitable service going. Proudly these organisations are displayed above and on our Subscriber Organisations page.
If you are asked for payment from someone claiming to be from IDCARE, please report this to us using our Report Phishing email.
IDCARE has access to the Department of Home Affairs Free Interpreting Service, delivered by the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National). Access to the Free Interpreting Service is provided to assist you to communicate with non-English speaking people who hold a Medicare card. Please note that the service does not extend to New Zealand citizens or residents who do not hold an Australian Medicare card, or to tourists, overseas students or people on temporary work visas.
New Zealand Relay provides services to help Deaf, hearing impaired, speech impaired, Deafblind and standard phone users communicate with their peers.
A TTY user connects to New Zealand Relay via a toll-free number and types their conversation to a Relay Assistant (RA) who then reads out the typed message to a standard phone user (hearing person).
The RA relays the hearing person's spoken words by typing them back to the Textphone (TTY) User.
The National Relay Service (NRS) is an Australian government initiative that allows people who are deaf, hard of hearing and/or have a speech impairment to make and receive phone calls.
The NRS is available 24 hours a day, every day and relays more than a million calls each year throughout Australia.
