KEY POINTS
- Scammers targeting Chinese students are using an alarming tactics to threaten, intimidate and steal from them.
- Australia's consumer watchdog has warned the scams can look "quite official".
- There have been just over 1,200 scam reports, with an estimated $8.7 million lost to scammers so far this year.
Chukchi Li is a data science student at the University of Sydney and says she receives a scam phone call at least once a fortnight, and a text message from scammers every day.
"I think they might want [to] get my money, because they want the bank number and my personal details, information, something like that," Li told SBS News.
"And the funny thing is, they even provide two languages for the next conversation. Like, they offer English language or Chinese."
Chukchi Li is among the group of people increasingly being targeted by scammers.
The National Anti Scam Centre says international students - especially Chinese students - with an alarming range of tactics to threaten, intimidate and steal from them.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been just over 1,200 scam reports, with an estimated $8.7 million lost to scammers.
A spokeswoman from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which operates the centre, said some students have paid staggering amounts.
"We've heard one story of a young man who paid over $400,000 to the scammers and we've seen a significant spike in the last month or so in the losses people that are reporting, and also a spike in the sophistication of the scam," the spokesperson said. "And that's why we're alerting students now to be on the lookout for this behaviour."
Desma Smith heads up the international student advisory support team at Melbourne's Swinburne University.
Smith said in her own experience, the scammers put the students under a lot of pressure.
"They will escalate from, if the student asks questions and seems to be a little bit unsure or a little bit wary, they will put them on to 'my sergeant' and then another person will speak to them," Smith said. "And it's very high pressure. A lot of implication that you have been implicated in a crime, and we need your cooperation and your silence in order to make - to prove your own innocence."
The ACCC warns the scams look "quite official". Source: Getty / Jackyenjoyphotography
"I do remember several years ago when this particular type of work started, in the scam area, one student was told, when she didn't believe who they were, that she could ring the Beijing police station," she said. "She looked up the phone on the website, rang the number, and was back-connected in with these scammers again."
The ACCC says technology allows scammers to use these sophisticated techniques.
"It will look quite official because the scammers are using spoofing technology, so it will look like the official Chinese authority number," the spokesperson said. "The student will then be threatened with deportation in relation to these spurious charges that they're caught up in, and they will be told that the only way to avoid that will be to pay a fine or a bond or similar."
Li said some of her fellow classmates have been caught up in these scams.
"I had a friend - like last month, they took thousands of dollars from her," she said.
Smith said international students need to be careful - but support is available.
"They're pretty vulnerable," she said.
"Once they realise they have been taken advantage of, they're really unsure what to do about it.
"It's one of the reasons that my team runs a large international student welcome, to get ourselves and our team in front of them, so that they understand if you're not sure, just ask."
