How to stay scam aware this silly season

Remaining vigilant about data and digital security is particularly important around holiday season as phishing attempts increase. The North team want to share a few reminders for you and your clients on staying safe online.

Phishing awareness

• Phishing is a scam where attackers impersonate trusted brands or individuals to trick you into sharing sensitive information or downloading harmful files. These emails often:
  • Look official: They may use AMP or North branding and logos.
  • Create urgency e.g. “Your account will be locked unless you act now.”
  • Contain links or attachments: Clicking these can lead to fake login pages or install malware.

Examples of how you or your clients could be targetted:

• Emails asking for your North or AMP login details.
• Requests for financial or banking information.
• Messages with links to fake portals or attachments claiming to be important documents.

What You Should So If You Receive a Suspicious “North” Email

1. Do not click links or open attachments.
2. Do not reply or provide personal, login, or banking details.
3. Report it as spam/phishing in your email program.
4. Send a copy of the email to North Service Centre:
   • Attach the original email as a .msg or .eml file to a new email.
   • Use subject line: “Suspected North scam email”.
   • Send to: fraud@amp.com.au

Providing the original email helps our security team block similar scams and protect others.

How to Save and Send a Suspicious Email

• Outlook (Desktop): Drag the email to your Desktop (creates .msg file), attach to a new email, and send.
• Outlook (Web): Download the original email as .eml, attach to a new email, and send.
• Gmail: Download message as .eml, attach to a new email, and send.
• For other email services, look for “Download original” or “Export message.”

Report the email as spam/phishing

• Outlook: Right-click email → “Report phishing” or “Report junk.”
• Gmail: Oopen email → three dots → “Report phishing.”

Staying safe

• North will never ask for your password via email.
• Be cautious of urgent language, poor grammar, or links asking you to verify your account.
• When in doubt, go directly to North Online via your usual bookmark or type the official address.
  

Staying viliant about data and digital security

Remaining vigilant about data and digital security has become part of everyday life. The North team wants to share a few reminders for you and your clients to help stay safe online:

• Monitor your accounts and immediately report any suspicious activity.
• Be cautious of phishing scams and extra careful when opening email attachments as they may contain malware.
• Be cautious of urgent requests to click links in emails as this may take you to malicious websites. Hover your curser over links before clicking on them to show you where the link is going to try and take you.
• Install and regularly update firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware and spam filtering software on your home PC. Security software helps protect your computer against fraudulent activity by detecting and preventing online attacks.
• Try using passphrases instead of passwords as password length adds more complexity, something like “!gn0ranc# !s Bli$$” or “W!nt3r !s C0m!ng”. A password manager can also make things easy and keep all your passwords safe.
• Sign up for two-factor authentication (where possible) so when you log into your accounts, you'll need to provide two forms of verification to access them, e.g. you'll need to enter your password as well as a code sent by email or SMS. This is now mandatory for North.
• Be cautious of phone and SMS scams. You can visit scamwatch.gov.au to find out more about the latest scams, how to report a scam or get help if you’ve been scammed.
• If your clients are concerned about the security of their identity or any related cyber scam, they can get free and confidential support from IDCare by calling 1300 432 273 or visiting idcare.org. IDCARE have expert Case Managers who can work with them to address their concerns and there’s no cost.

North takes you and your client’s data and online security seriously, and are continuously updating and improving our processes and protocols.