The best quality scam I have ever seen
Another day, another scam or so it seems…..
Yesterday (21st November 2022) I received a letter in the post sent to my home address, it wasn’t until I opened the envelope this morning that alarm bells started ringing. The letter arrived in a white envelope printed with the Westpac logo, the envelope looks completely legitimate.
The letter inside was 10 pages long, the cover letter is extremely well written and there are only a few of minor hints within the text of the cover letter that this is a scam. Here’s the cover letter-
Westpac scam letter cover page
There are three things wrong with this letter. The first is so minor that it could easily be overlooked – the quality and the feel of the paper itself isn’t quite right, the paper is thin and it feels cheap.
The next hint is also very minor and easily overlooked – the printing quality is poor, although the header banner is printed all the way to the edge of the paper there is a thin white stipe on the right side of the page and there are a couple of imperfections in the red part.
The last hint is the obvious error in the date where they say “If we don’t hear from you by 19/01/1900…”.
Despite these hints I think most people wouldn’t even notice the low quality printing and paper and it would be easy to dismiss the 1900 date as some kind of automation error.
The rest of the pages appear to be legitimate Westpac data collection documents (see images below). This scam has been reported to Westpac, Scamwatch and the Australian Cyber Security Center but I think it is really important to let the Australian public know about this ASAP. Take a close look at the letter and you be the judge, would scam this have caught you out? Share this warning with everyone you know.
Westpac scam letter page 2
Westpac scam letter page 3
Westpac scam letter page 4
Westpac scam letter page 5
Westpac scam letter page 6
Westpac scam letter page 7
Westpac scam letter page 8
Westpac scam letter page 9
Westpac scam letter envelope
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