Mr Hardwick said Optus’ approach to the hack appeared “piecemeal”, alleging some affected had been refused assistance because they were no longer customers. Kate*, a domestic violence survivor, said the possible exposure of her personal information in the Optus cyber attack had been more than an inconvenience. The lawsuit seeks compensation for the time and money spent replacing documents and protecting privacy, alongside damages for distress, frustration and disappointment. In a statement of claim, the lawsuit alleges Optus failed to protect customers personal information from unauthorised access, failed to destroy former customers’ information, and failed to ensure it could only be accessed for legitimate reasons. “Concerningly, the data breach has also potentially jeopardised the safety of a large number of particularly vulnerable groups of Optus customers, such as victims of domestic violence, stalking and other crimes, as well as those working in frontline occupations including the defence force and policing.” “The type of information made accessible put affected customers at a higher risk of being scammed and having their identities stolen, and Optus should have had adequate measures in place to prevent that,” class actions practice group leader Ben Hardwick said. The class-action was filed in the Federal Court by law firm Slater and Gordon on Friday, who claim the breach created “very real risks” to Optus‘ current and past customers. More than 100,000 Optus customers have launched legal action against the telco in the wake of a cyberattack, alleging the company failed to protect their personal information. Urgent requests for personal or sensitive information (Optus will never request personal info via email / SMS)įollow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to the free Fully Briefed daily newsletter. Generic greetings, such as 'Hi Optus customer' Not all phishing attempts are obvious, but signs to look out for include: Optus has provided advice in relation to spotting a phishing scam purporting to be from them. “This campaign is designed to capture and harvest sensitive user credentials like usernames and passwords, along with credit card details, which may then be used in subsequent criminal activity such as for fraudulent payments or sold on the dark web to other cybercriminal groups. “Scammers regularly use this technique to confuse victims into believing that it is authentic communication,” MailGuard said. “Scammers have not gone to much effort to accurately copy Optus branding, however, the inclusion of brand colours, a bill number, and refund message, could easily fool time-poor and innocent victims,” MailGuard said. Upon opening the email, the victim is met with a ‘Your refund did not go through!’ message, advising them that the latest balance of their account has been paid twice due to a system error.Ĭlicking on the ‘Refund the amount’ link supposedly refunds the purported amount ‘within 3 business days’. MailGuard is warning all Optus customers to always check the email address that the email has come from, as scammers try to distract recipients by using the company name as the sender. The email arrives with the subject, ‘Your new refund bill No: ’ from ‘Optus’ attached to what appears to be a compromised business account. “With over 10 million Optus subscribers in Australia, it is highly likely that some unsuspecting victims will follow through on the phishing scam without giving it a second thought,” MailGuard said.Īlso read: Troubling warning over $0.01 bank transactionsĪlso read: DO NOT CLICK: Warning over 'sinister' LinkedIn emailĪlso read: ‘Don’t re-post’: Police warning over Facebook scam The email, intercepted by MailGuard, is targeting the 10 million Optus customers around Australia to try and entice them into providing them credit card, username, and password details with the promise of a refund. Optus customers need to be wary of a phishing email that may land in their inbox, claiming to offer a refund. Optus customers have been warned about a scam email seeking to steal their personal information.
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