Protect yourself from email scams - Telstra
Learn about email scams
Follow our tips and advice on how to spot one and what you should do next.
Types of email scams
Phishing
This type of scam email asks you to provide personal or sensitive information. Phishing scams may ask you to reply to the email and include things such as your password, or they may ask you to click a link to visit a website. Often, the website will look similar to a legitimate Telstra website (such as My Telstra) and may ask you for even more sensitive information.
Malware
Malicious software (malware) comes with, or links to, an attachment or a downloadable link that you’re encouraged to open. This is a common method that hackers use to try and put a virus or other unwanted programmes on your computer. Sometimes the attachments will pretend to be a Telstra bill, or the email itself may look similar to a genuine message from Telstra.
What to look out for:
- Unaddressed or generically addressed emails, such as “Dear Customer”.
- Badly written emails with broken sentences, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and words in a foreign language.
- Emails that show account information that doesn’t match your Telstra account details. You can refer to My Telstra for accurate account information.
- Requests for your credit card, passwords, account details or personal information – either by replying to the email, or by asking you to “click a link” and fill in a web form.
- Suspicious looking URLs, or ones that don’t directly point back to the Telstra website.
- Emails that include a zip file, an .exe or other suspicious attachment.
- Requests for your credit card, passwords, account details or personal information – either by replying to the email, or by asking you to “click a link” and fill in a web form.
What to do next:
- Avoid opening suspicious or unsolicited emails – delete them directly from your inbox.
- If you get a suspicious email, don't reply to the email or open the links. If you accidentally click on a link which opens a website, don't enter any information onto the website.
- Avoid opening email attachments. If you've already saved or clicked on an attachment, make sure that your computer’s operating system and anti-virus software is up to date. Consider running an anti-virus scan of your computer.
- Tell us about the scam by submitting a Report Misuse of Service form and include as much detail as you can. Our Cyber Security team will investigate the report and may be in touch if they have additional questions.
More on Cyber Security and easy ways of staying safe online
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