What is an email scam?
OSR has recently become aware of an email scam where the sender implies they represent the Office of State Revenue (OSR).
The email indicates that the recipient may be entitled to unclaimed monies. To obtain these funds the sender of the email requires certain personal information from the recipient such as full name, address, phone and fax number. OSR never requests these details via email.
Be aware of emails asking for your personal details. They are an attempt to obtain your personal details for the purpose of undertaking fraudulent activity. This is commonly known as Identity Theft. If you respond in any way to the email, the scammer may send further messages or even contact you by phone in an attempt to find out additional personal information.
The email scam was sent indiscriminately to people around the country. If anyone has any information to help identify the person or persons involved or information on any other scams, please contact contact us .
An example of a scam email
Good day to you.
With due respect, trust and humility, I write to you this proposal. I know my request might come as a baffling and shocking embarrassment to you being that I am complete stranger to you but I have the best of intentions.
My name is Ann Elizabeth Pederson.I am with the office of the state Revenue NSW Treasury,Australia.I need you to go through the website in order the grasp what i mean:
go to www.osr.nsw.gov.au click unclaimed money on the right hand side on the webpage.Then click on the page that allows you to do a search.Click lastly on the alphabetical list of unclaimed money
My purpose of contacting you is that there has been a huge amount of money that has remained unclaimed in the treasury .Most of the beneficiaries are either missing or declared dead. What I need from you is your full details i.e. full names,address, phone and fax number.
We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response. Its of utmost importance for you to know that i'm doing this for humanitarian reasons and not for selfish and personal aggrandizement. If you decline my proposal, i'll understand but most importantly, i will appreciate if this will be kept with utmost secrecy.
What is your best defence against this type of scam?
We suggest you:
don't open the email if you do not recognise the sender
don’t respond to the email!
don't select any links to the web site contained in the email as the site may be one specifically set up by the fraudster
don’t provide any personal or financial details.
Emails with website links can contain code that could attempt to gain access to your computer by loading a trojan-infected program or perhaps a keylogger program onto your computer. This program can be used to gather your personal information such as a userid and password.
The fraudster can then use your personal details to create fake accounts in your name, ruin your credit rating, or even prevent you from accessing your own accounts.
Note: OSR does not request this type of information from our clients via email.
For more information on scams and other fraudulent activity contact:
