Pause before sharing your personal information

Estimated reading time
 4 min

Key points

• Pausing before you share personal information or acting on a request, such as transferring money, is a simple step you can take to help protect yourself from serious threats, like identity theft or money loss.
  
  
• Scammers will put pressure on you to do something without letting you think it through – that’s how they catch you in their web.
  
  
• If you’ve been contacted out of the blue, pause and look for the scam red flags before you make your next move.

Sharing is caring (for the most part). But when it comes to your personal information or responding to a request online or over the phone, you don’t need to do anything for anyone unless you’re certain it’s safe. 

When you receive a suspicious message or call, taking a moment to pause and think things through can help protect yourself and personal information from scammers.

Why is pausing to think before you act so important?

“Scammers will usually put the pressure on you to do something or share information quickly,” explains Sushma Bhandary, ANZ’s Journey Expert in Security Operations, Intel and Influence. “Pausing to evaluate the situation, verifying the person or business contacting you, then acting accordingly are steps you can take to help protect your personal information.”

When you get contacted out of the blue by someone and they either ask you to do something or to provide your personal information, Sushma suggests that stopping and asking yourself some of these questions can help you take the appropriate next step:

• Do I know who I'm communicating with?
  
  
• Is this information necessary to share with this person or business?
  
  
• Am I comfortable sharing this information?
  
  
• How will my information be used?
  
  
• What are the risks of sharing this information?

According to Sushma, “Taking this step can help you feel in control of the situation and by taking it slow and safe, you may prevent identity theft, potential financial loss, or protect your reputation, all because fraudsters couldn’t get you to hand over your personal information or money.”

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What else can you do to be safer online?

• Pause before sharing any information or transferring money. As we touched on earlier, scammers create a sense of urgency, so you don’t have the chance to think it through. By taking that extra step, you can decide if you need to do or share anything. Chances are you don’t.
  
  
• Switch your social media profiles to ‘private’ where you can. Be mindful of the type of information you share online too. Scammers and cybercriminals can use details like your date of birth, full name, and phone number to run scams or for other criminal activity.
  
  
• Don’t click on links or open any files that are sent to you in a message or email.
  
  
• Never share personal information or passwords in response to a message, call or email from a company or organisation. Contact them another way (like calling the number listed on their website) to verify that they are the person or organisation who contacted you.
  
  
• Shred any physical documents that have your name, address and other private information on them once you don’t need them anymore. For example, you can shred a bill once you’ve paid it or a letter from your local council you don’t need.
  
  
• Keep track of your transactions – if anything looks suspicious, call your bank straight away.
  
  
• Stay up to date on the latest security alerts and understand what different types of scams look like.

Signs of a scam to look for when you’re pausing

If you’ve been contacted unexpectedly by an organisation, pause and look for some of these red flags so you can make the right call on what to do:

• In the message, there are spelling mistakes, unusual links or attachments.
  
  
• There’s a sense of urgency that you do something for them, like sharing information or making a payment.
  
  
• You need to make a payment in a specific way, such as transferring money into multiple bank accounts.
  
  
• The offer they’re making sounds too good to be true, like making a low-risk high-rewards investment.
  
  
• There’s an unusual email address that doesn’t match the business they’re pretending to be. Or, they might have an international phone number when they’re impersonating an Australian business.

Get ready to make a PACT

You’ve taken the first step in making a PACT and protecting yourself online – now it’s time to seal the deal:

• Activate two layers of security
• Call out and report suspicious messages
  
• Turn on automatic software updates