SOMETHING wasn't quite right when a debt collector appeared on a young woman's doorstep to repossess her car because she had "defaulted" on her car payments.
The woman was a victim of identity fraud, in which someone had stolen her identity and taken out a loan in her name to buy the car.
Recently, a Casey resident placed an advertisement in simpletrader.com.au seeking to buy two puppies.
A trader contacted the resident, claiming to have puppies for sale. The buyer paid $280 through Western Union before noticing the money had been sent to Cameroon.
He queried the trader, who claimed it was a third-party account.
However, the buyer cancelled the transaction and received a refund.
Consumer Affairs Victoria, with a regional office in Berwick, has received more than 280 reports of similar scams in the south-east since July last year.
CAV spokeswoman Kim Healey said the major scams reported were online frauds, such as Nigerian bank scams, bogus lottery schemes, investment and financial scams, prize awards and get-rich schemes.
She said mobile phone and internet fraud cases were steadily increasing. "Scammers are making unsolicited calls to mobile phones or contacting people via text messages.
"In the past, people were receiving unsolicited mail or email, and occasionally calls to land lines, but rarely to mobile phones."
Ms Healey said there had been no great rise in credit card and financial fraud in Victoria in the past few years.
There had also been a few cases of scammers used social networking sites.
"Recently a consumer was contacted by a person named Chris Waters on Facebook requesting they transfer money to them in Africa.
"A consumer received numerous emails saying he was owed millions of dollars and believes his email was found via Facebook. The consumer was advised to block the email addresses."
Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson urged Victorians to watch out for online fraud, as part of this year's National Consumer Fraud Week.
"They are getting sophisticated in their approach to con people out of money and personal information and are using email and other forms of technology to get to you," Mr Robinson said.
He said Victorians needed to be aware of the risks of online transactions so they could protect themselves from being scammed out of their hard-earned money or their personal details.
He said some victims did not report being scammed because they were too embarrassed to come forward. He encouraged victims to report the matter to prevent others being ripped off report the matter.
Consumer Affairs Victoria.
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