Suspicious payment or ID verification requests

Our security systems have alerted us to a new scam, related to payment and ID verification.

The scam starts as a message in the carsales inbox and suggests to the seller that our policies have been updated and they need to verify their identify, or update their payments details. Here are two examples below, however, they may read or look different to this:

These messages are attempting to take sellers off the carsales network, to obtain personal or banking details. Please do not click on any links in the these messages, or respond to the sender.

If you receive one of these messages, please report the conversation so we can review and keep track of this activity. Reporting the conversation will also block the sender from contacting you further.

The systems that we have in place are spotting many of these scams and are stopping them. Our Trust and Safety team are continuing to monitor these scams.

We recommend being alert to messages in your inbox that sounds unusual, in particular when they contain links or are asking for personal or banking details.

If you receive a message that you think is suspicious, you can contact us via email or phone and we can review the communication for you. Or, if you think it’s a scam, report it to us.

Click here to learn more on how you can protect yourself online. If you think you have seen a scam or have been scammed you can also contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission:
• by phone on 1300 302 502; or
• by completing an online report at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam.

You can also report online fraud to the Australian Government via https://www.cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report
We also recommend that you sign up for the ACSC Alert Service at https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/register