By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A TEACHER from Endeavour Hills is warning other teachers and the community to be wary after falling victim to a computer hacking scam.
The teacher (who didn’t want to be named) was using her work computer – which was virus protected – last week when a pop-up alert told her the laptop had a Trojan virus and asked her to ring a 1800 number.
When she rang the number the man on the other line, who appeared to want to help her, was able to gain access inside her laptop where she had banking and personal details stored.
No money was stolen from the account but the ordeal has left the teacher shaken after assuming the man was legitimate, and only realising towards the end of the phone conversation that the whole thing was likely a scam.
“It’s such a violation,” the teacher told Star News.
“Someone has entered your private world and you have no idea what they’ll do with the documentation stored there.”
The teacher has since informed her school and the police about the hacking attempt and is now warning other teachers to be careful.
“They target innocent people just operating their day to day life,” she said.
“For my identity they could have anything they ever need, the whole works, birth dates, signatures …”
The teacher warned the community that even though a computer is virus-checked and seemingly protected, to not assume it was impenetrable.
The teacher also sang the praises of the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN), a Federal Government cybercrime team which is currently investigating the teacher’s case.
ACORN is a national policing initiative of the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments.
It is an online system that allows the public to securely report instances of cybercrime, and also provides advices to help people recognise and avoid common types of cybercrime.
For more information on ACORN, visit www.acorn.gov.au.
