Have you received an email that appears to come from Visa Europe offering to pay you to complete a survey? It looks very real, but SCAMwatch is warning you not to respond!

The survey email is addressed to Visa Credit/Debit card holders and tells consumers that Visa.com Team has initiated a new poll on the functionality of its banking services. The email says that if cardholders complete the survey form attached to the email, a payment of Ђ50 will be 'debited' to their credit card account within two days.

To qualify for the bonus payment, the survey requires consumers to provide comprehensive personal and credit card details.

Beware—by providing any of these details, you are taking a big risk! Scammers will use your personal and financial details to steal your money or commit identity fraud!

Remember—while reputable businesses and banks will often contact people to warn them about suspicious activity, they will never ask you to provide your credit details via an email. If you have any doubts, ring the business or bank to verify the email.

If you receive this or any other unsolicited emails that appear to come from legitimate businesses, do not respond to them—not only do you risk losing your money and your identity, many phishing emails carry viruses that can infect your computer. 

Warning signs

  • You receive an unsolicited email or SMS claiming to be from your bank, service provider or a business you have an account with. The email contains a link that leads you to a website where you are prompted to enter your bank or credit card account details.
  • The email does not address you by your proper name.
  • The email might contain typing errors and grammatical mistakes.
  • You are asked to provide your personal information or your bank account details so that you can claim a prize or other reward.
  • The email is identified as SPAM.

Protect yourself

  • Never provide your personal, credit card or banking details in response to unsolicited emails, or enter them on any website if you are not certain it is genuine.
  • Do not open suspicious or unsolicited emails (spam)—ignore and delete them immediately! You can report spam to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
  • Do not open any attachments, click on any links or reply to these emails.
  • If in doubt, always contact the business, government agency or bank to verify that the request is genuine. Never rely on contact details provided in unsolicited emails. Instead, find these contact details independently.
  • Check the website address carefully. Scammers often set up fake websites with very similar addresses.
  • Keep your computer updated with the latest anti-virus and anti-spy ware software, and use a good firewall.

As well as following these specific tips, find out how to protect yourself from all sorts of other scams.

Report

You can report scams via the report a scam page on SCAMwatch.
Report SPAM to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

More information

Explore SCAMwatch to find out more about phishing scams or download our Phishing scams fact sheet.[fact sheet no longer available]

 

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Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves using someone else's identity to steal money or gain other benefits.
Phishing scams are attempts by scammers to trick you into giving out your personal information such as your bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.