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Put yourself here. The banks of the beautiful Murray River, the smell of fresh coffee and bacon and eggs rolls being cooked by the Rotary Club. Perfect weather. This was the setting Mildura, in the north-east of Victoria, delivered when IDCARE held its Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinic at the Sunraysia Farmers Market on 5 February.

Our very own CROC handler, Rob Blackmore, spent some time in the community before the markets, interacting with the locals who had reached out to IDCARE for assistance after they had been scammed or experienced identity theft. Rob spoke to a client, let's call her Susan, who lost $100,000 in a Bitcoin and ADSupply scam. She has had to work longer hours in a bid to build up her savings once again. Susan was very appreciate of IDCARE's personal visit to her community.  We will be sharing more of her story in our new podcast segment (watch this space).

Rob's Outreach truck - which is called Chuck - generated a lot of interest during the set up at the markets and many came across to learn more about IDCARE's important role in the community. Visitors shared their stories of near misses, including "Dave" who had his bank stop a suspicious transfer between accounts when they noticed the IP address of the computer was offshore. This saved Dave from a $30,000 loss and highlights the valuable role banks have to play in preventing fraud.



There were numerous questions around how scammers can spoof telephone numbers and create fake emails. The federal Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, also popped in and was interested in scam awareness. She has taken a pile of IDCARE's brochures back to her office.  The Independent candidate for Mallee, Sophie Baldwin's, staff also popped in for a visit and were keen to learn about IDCARE and the role it plays in communities.



For Rob, a highlight of the market was meeting a new potential CROC champion who is eager to use her skills to share advice about scams, identity theft and staying safe online. 

Hervey Bay is a coastal city in southern Queensland where thousands visit each year to spot a humpback whale. It is also a city that is fed up with scammers!

IDCARE held a CROC clinic at the Torquay Saturday markets after probably the biggest rain downpour in months. While our team was a little bit soggy, the venue was fabulous and we were able to set up our stall in front of the CROC truck.

Our trucks (okay, technically they're not trucks, but we think they are) sure do pull a crowd. And when there is a "Scream at a Scammer booth" in front of it, we had many curious onlookers. This provided a great opportunity to start a conversation with people about the scams impacting Hervey Bay. IDCARE data from over 500,000 engagements showed Hervey Bay residents were vulnerable to telephone scams - and the people who visited the clinics had their own stories to tell.



There was Ellie who was "fed up" with scammers calling her number as she had reached the point she didn't know whether to answer the phone anymore. There was Karen who had many friends seeking her computer expertise to secure their devices as they were afraid to go online. And there were also many tourists who were thankful to see IDCARE out in the community, raising awareness about scams and the simple steps that make a big difference, such as setting up multi-factor authentication on their accounts. Thanks again to our major sponsors, Westpac, Meta and the nbn for making it possible for us to do this!

The market stallholders were grateful to hear about IDCARE's initiative to help small businesses and packages that were available to ease the stress of cyber safety when they already have enough on their hands. 

But possibly the message to scammers came from "Pirate Pete", Hervey' Bay's Ian Dinte. Ian has been raising funds for the Hervey Bay Special School for over a decade. He has even transformed his mobility scooter into a "pirate ship". Watch Pirate Pete's message on our Facebook page here. 

Hervey Bay is a coastal city in southern Queensland where thousands visit each year to spot a humpback whale. It is also a city that is fed up with scammers!

Every Thursday morning, Maryborough's Adelaide Street closes off to traffic and transforms into a busy market area in the heart of the city centre.

People travel from all across South East Queensland to sell their goods and the street is packed from 7am with eager shoppers.

This was the IDCARE CROC team's first attempt at a stall at a market and this event was also going to be unusual as we knew A Current Affair was sending a camera operator to film the clinic.

From the moment the Scream at a Scammer booth was erected, we had an influx of people asking questions.

It wasn't only Maryborough locals who were shopping for Christmas, at least half of the passers-by were tourists.

Questions included: 

While the shoppers were obviously interested in the clinic and a record number of brochures and cards were handed out, the best interaction was with the other stallholders.

IDCARE sent crews to have short discussions with the stallholders who were either concerned about scams and how to protect their business, or were in the middle of an incident.

Mr Whippy Fraser Coast, Robby Staff, shared how he was having an ongoing struggle with his Facebook page as it had been cloned and someone was pretending to be him, contacting all his clients.


Initial concerns five hours for a clinic might be too long were unwarranted. This clinic was the most well-attended yet and the informal arrangement allowed in-depth discussions with shoppers and stallholders. 

And as for the cameraman, he had hours  of footage to choose from to compile a segment that led the national television program on Friday, 10 December. 

Every Thursday morning, Maryborough's Adelaide Street closes off to traffic and transforms into a busy market area in the heart of the city centre.


Ali Curung is an Indigenous community in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory, located around 170kms from Tennant Creek and over 300kms from Alice Springs. To get there, you travel along the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs, and about 50kms before you spot the Devil’s Marbles, you turn a sharp right.

The bitumen road quickly narrows to one track as you navigate the red dirt to head to the community.  For those who have travelled through regional Australia, you will know there is no internet connection between major towns. You can literally watch the bars on your phone go from four, to scrabbling around desperately searching, to no signal within the space of seconds.



But the moment you get to Ali Curung, your phone fires off with missed messages and you have four bars again.

In this community lives Colin Kiel, the principal of Alekarenge, the school and (arguably) the heart of Ali Curung.

Colin is from the big smoke – it doesn’t get much bigger in Australia than Melbourne, which has the postcode with the greatest population density. The 2016 Census showed inner-city Melbourne had 17,500 people per square kilometre.

Ali Curung is in the postcode of 0872. The population density of this postcode is 0.02 people per square kilometre. After obtaining his teaching degree, Colin moved to Ali Curung on what was supposed to be a short-term teaching contract. Eight years later and he is still there.

Colin first reached into IDCARE around three years ago after his email had been hacked. Our National Case Management Centre gave him support on the steps to take to fix this problem. He also contacted us in 2020, when he noticed the “warrant for arrest” telephone scam was going through his community.

He said people were “absolutely” more vulnerable to scams as “their financial literacy isn’t very high and, for some of our community, English is their fourth language".

“When they get the call, they don’t understand the person on the other end of the line. The person sounds like they know what they are talking about, they sound professional, and they’ll follow instructions as they may not fully understand what is happening," Colin explained.

After speaking to Colin, we decided to take a closer look at the statistics.

Offering a national community service for nearly eight years and over 500,000 engagements with people impacted by cybercrime makes this easy.

It was quick to see what Colin was experiencing in Ali Curung was typical across regional and remote Australia.

People living in these communities were three times more likely to be vulnerable to cybercrime than those living in the city and the financial loss is, on average, 40% higher!

Why? There are a number of reasons.

People living in regional and remote areas don’t have the same access to services those living in the cities do. The nearest bank or government office to Ali Curung is in Tennant Creek.

And while everyone in Australia is being bombarded by the “postal delivery” text messages at the moment, the people living in Ali Curung are dependent on postal delivery. There is no Kmart down those dusty streets.

Government services and banks do visit Ali Curung, but the school was only recently highlighted by the Australian Education Union as the school Australia forgot. 

We travelled to Ali Curung and had the opportunity to sit in the classroom with some of the teachers and students and talk about scams we knew were impacting that community. 

We know our quick visit is unlikely to make a lasting impact. But we’ve formed a connection and it is one we are determined to develop. Thanks to our CROC sponsors Westpac, Meta (formerly Facebook), and nbn, we have the ability to go back.

One of the teachers has suggested we get one of the students to help design an awareness campaign around scam messaging. We love this idea. And one of the students saw us fiddling with our drone, trying to work out how to get it started, when he said “I know how to fly that one”. We can’t wait to see his drone footage.

There are communities dotted across Australia, just like Ali Curung. Some might not be so small, but our data has identified them as being in the sights of scammers. We know that having a physical presence in these communities and connecting face-to-face, not through facetime, makes a real difference.

A version of this article has appeared in IDCARE's 16 November newsletter.

Ali Curung is an Indigenous community in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory, located around 170kms from Tennant Creek and over 300kms from Alice Springs.

Here's a fun fact: Uluru is not Australia's biggest rock. 

That title goes to Mount Augustus in Western Australia, which isn't only Australia's biggest rock (at about two-and-a-half times the size of Uluru) it is also the world's biggest rock.

However, our CROC clinic decided the township of Yulara, at the base of Uluru, needed awareness about cyber safety due to the large number of tourists passing through and the excellent internet connection available at the town centre.

Excellent internet connection, except on the day we arrived.

It turned out there was an "outage" in the area and we couldn't even check in properly.

The outage gave us a good opportunity when hosting our CROC clinic in the centre of the town to talk with passers-by and the shop owners about nbn scams - with scammers regularly posing as the being from "Telstra" to improve internet access.

The Scream at a Scammer booth proved to be a popular attraction with many tourists taking the opportunity to deliver a message to scammers.

Shazz who is originally from New Zealand but was living in Brisbane, didn't hold back.

And while her message might not have been PG-rated, it conveyed the frustration many people feel.

She had so nearly been caught out in the "Border Control" scam.

Here's a fun fact: Uluru is not Australia's biggest rock. 

A CROC clinic at Australia's most iconic (but not the biggest) rock

When we arrived at Yulara School (near Uluru) and realised we were talking to children aged between five and 12 years old we were a little intimidated.

What were we going to be able to teach children about scammers who weren't the correct legal age for most apps or social media and probably shouldn't own a smart phone  anyway?



Dave (aka The Boss) was best equipped to provide advice. After all, he has four daughters (aged between five and 16) and he loaded up "Forky Ask a A Question - What is a Computer".

Forky provided a good ice-breaker, but it turned out we needn't have worried about the content. The kids had so many questions and were well-informed as to the risks of engaging with people they did not know. They also were very across using computersand several already owned their own phones. 

The useful part of the session was being able to speak to the children about setting up accounts safely and they were 100% engaged.

Questions included:
"How do you know if a website is not real?"
"Can anything go wrong on Minecraft?"
"My mum keeps getting texts from Australia Post about parcels, what does that mean?"

The school principal also asked questions about text messaging as the Flubot malware scam had been impacting the teaching staff too. 

The session at Yulara proved education on cyber safety needs to start in primary school. These kids were far more informed and engaged online than we anticipated and now they have a bigger understanding of the risks, which they can also share with their family at home. 

When we arrived at Yulara School and realised we were talking to children aged between five and 13 years old, we were a little intimidated.

What do primary school kids know about cyber safety?

Maybe a rocket is an emoji overstatement, but we've had to interrupt our normal blog posting of our clinics to highlight the official launch of CROC, Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinics.

On Monday, 15 November, the IDCARE crew took the cyber "trucks" into a pineapple field with the most magnificent backdrop of the Glass House Mountains in Queensland's Sunshine Coast and set up the Scream at a Scammer booth for some VIPs. 

The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, and the Federal Member for Fisher, Andrew Wallace, braved walking through the dusty grounds to launch our initiative to reach regional and remote communities.

We also had a swarm or a pack (not sure what the collective noun is here) of journalists descend on the Moffat's pineapple farm to report on the historic event.

The weather the week before had been 🌧☔🌧 so we were a little bit worried when organising such a big event in advance. But it was just perfect Goldilocks weather on the day (not too hot, not too cold).

While our sponsors, Westpac, Meta and nbn, were unable to make it into Queensland for the event (Queensland reopens its borders on 17 December), they did send some wonderful words explaining why they decided to partner with IDCARE in something that has never been tried before. 

Westpac’s Chief Digital Officer Jason Hair said the following:

“Scams and fraud continue to be a big issue in the community, and after seeing a surge in scams during the pandemic it’s never been more important to help educate people so they can better protect themselves, as well as those around them. We know scammers often target people who are more isolated, so the impacts for those living in remote areas can be significant. We’re really excited to work with IDCARE to not only build greater awareness, but also extend vital support services to help combat the impact of scams in regional and rural communities.” 

Meta (formerly Facebook) Head of Policy for Australia, Josh Machin, said Meta was “thrilled to support IDCARE’s CROC initiative”. 

Over the past 18 months, we know Australians have been spending more time online, and so are scammers, who are are becoming increasingly sophisticated, causing financial and emotional harm to Australians. That’s why it’s so important for everyone to learn how to spot and avoid different types of scams, so that they are equipped to protect not just themselves, but their friends and family as well," he said.

And the nbn's Chief Security Officer, Darren Kane had this to say:

 “nbn has a proud history over its relatively short presence of being a strong supporting partner to government, industry and business with the goal of mitigating the risks posed by scams and other forms of cybercrime.  We see our involvement in this initiative, partnering with IDCARE as a continued commitment to this effort.  This campaign will alert vulnerable communities to the risks posed by online crime by providing education, helpful tips and techniques allowing these communities to benefiting from connection to the wonders of the digital world in a more secure and confident way.”

Thanks all!

IDCARE's founder and managing director, Dr David Lacey (aka Dave, or The Boss) summed up why we were going into the community and looking for cyber champions:

“An important value of being an Australian is mateship and the need to look out for your mates. It’s no different when it comes to scams, watching out for family and friends is a key disrupter to scammers,” Dr Lacey said.


Minister Andrews was fantastic in highlighting the work of IDCARE and why the federal government announced funding support for its service in its 2020 budget. The field we were in might not have been suited to VIP outfits, but she took it in her stride and even picked her own pineapple! We are immensely grateful for her support.


And the Member for Fisher, Andrew Wallace, has long been a supporting of the work at IDCARE and used the opportunity to vent in a tent in the Scream at a Scammer booth.

The launch was featured on 7News Sunshine Coast and in various ABC radio bulletins as well as online publications, including the Sunshine Coast Daily ahead of the event.


One of our clients who had been involved in an investment scam, let's call him Bob, also turned up.

We were so overwhelmed with the support of the local media, the politicians, the Moffats, our clients and our crew which went into making a BIG day for IDCARE and CROC a fantastic one too.

Thanks to Cade Media and photographer, Warren Lynam, for the incredible photos!  

Rob Blackmore left from the launch to begin travelling the country with his family in one of the cyber trucks and the rest of us went back to the office (via the Beerwah hotel). 

NEWS FLASH:  CROC has officially been launched 🚀

This CROC venture starts with the plane trip to get there and a game of pool (on a smart phone).

For those who haven't travelled to Alice Springs recently, landing at the airport is a little bit surreal as there are literally dozens of big Boeings lined up next to the tarmac, waiting for the pandemic to end (or double vaccination rates to take effect) to transport people around the world again.


It is a stark reminder of the times we have been living in, where people have been forced to spend time at home instead of travelling and engagement with scammers has reached unprecedented levels. 

The flight between Brisbane and Alice Springs takes around four hours and there was no onboard entertainment, so we had to play pool. On a smart phone. This game of pool would set a precedent for future CROC outings.


We had a special delivery waiting for us at our resort in Alice Springs. Our purposefully designed cyber trucks (okay, technically they are not trucks, they are vehicles. But they look like trucks so we are sticking with it) had been delivered by truck from Perth only the day before.

None of us had seen the trucks yet and when the maxi-taxi pulled up at the resort, there they were. Blue and Green. Two 79series Landcruisers which had been fully equipped for long road trips, one with a blue trim and one with a green trim.


We went shopping to fit out the trucks with camping gear for the rest of the journey and had a discussion around names. Alice was a no-brainer for Green, but what where we going to call Blue? Bluey? Bob? 

Dave (aka The Boss) decided the trucks needed a camp oven and Yours Truly happened to say "do you mean a potjie?"

For those who don't know, a potjie is a South African camp oven that is quite well-known in Australia. And blow us over, this camp store had one. 

Dave bought a potjie. And then he said "let's name the blue truck 'Potjie'".

There was a strong objection to it. What kind of name for a vehicle is "Potjie", particularly as Dave couldn't even pronounce it correctly (think here "pot-gee", or "poyt-kay" instead of "poy-key".)

But as we've said before, Dave is "aka The Boss", so Blue is now "Potjie".

We were booked in at two events across Alice Springs the next day. Dave was presenting to a group of retirees at the Convention Centre with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) team. Ryan (aka the hyphen-ator) and Yours Truly were presenting at the library.

While Dave had 80 retirees turn up for his presentation, Ryan and I were faced with the moving traffic in the library and a small, but dedicated group of people keen to learn about the scams impacting their community.

Our research from engagement with the National Case Management Centre clearly pointed to telephone scams being the issue - and predominantly those involving parcel delivery.

We had the slides ready and we budgeted for a 30 minute presentation. Two hours later we had to call it quits!

There were so many different questions, from "is it safe to bank online" to "my family are getting scam emails and it looks like it is addressed from me, how do I stop it?".

We bounced off each other, with Ryan providing the technical understanding around what was going on with scams and me providing.... a glass of water for when Ryan was thirsty.

It was fantastic to share with a small audience what was happening in their community and I guess we did okay because one of the first comments was "this is so good, when can you come back?"

We also received this feedback from one of the attendees, Veronica Larson from Neighbourhood Watch NT.

"The IDCARE Team was a hit in Alice Springs. I attended their seminar in the Alice Springs Library and was really impressed with not only their knowledge of current scams and clever ways to protect oneself, but their genuine concern and care for getting this information out to people throughout Australia. I learned quite a lot from the presentation and was entertained throughout the event. I hope they’ll be back soon and that we can collaborate to bring in a larger audience to extend the reach of protection that IDCARE’s information provides."

Thanks Veronica!

This CROC venture starts with the plane trip to get there and a game of pool (on a smart phone).


For those who haven't travelled to Alice Springs recently, landing at the airport is a little bit surreal as there are literally dozens of big Boeings lined up next to the tarmac, waiting for the pandemic to end (or double vaccination rates to take effect) to transport people around the world again....

Planes, Potjie and CROC in the Alice Springs library

"Will you please run a cybersecurity session for the retirees at our village to fit in with our Safety Month?". This was the gist of a request that came through to our National Case Management Centre.

Requests like this are not unusual. Almost daily we will receive an invite from someone to hold a session on navigating the online world safely. Thanks be to COVID-19, honouring these requests has been difficult as we haven't been able to travel.

But, as luck would have it, this request was from a retirement village on the Sunshine Coast and Dave (aka the Boss) was available.  It is also part of the CROC initiative to offer education to people living in retirement homes who are understandably interested in the topic.

So off we went, equipped with a pack of slides, to meet the retirees in Sippy Downs.  

Instead of rattling off frightening stats and case studies, Dave gave a short insight into the work of IDCARE and some of the risks and then turned it over to the audience of around 30 people.

Questions included:

"Is it safe to do online banking?" Answer: Yes - as long as you are careful about your passwords and giving remote access to your device.

"Why can't police do more to stop scams?" Answer: Cybercriminals are typically based offshore and out of the jurisdiction of the police. However, the AFP does work with other policing organisations around the world to try and track activity.

"How do I shop safely online?" Answer: Do your research. It is easy for scammers to create fake websites that may look to sell anything. Check the reviews on the site before you engage, check if it is a secure site and has the padlock and trust seal. And if the price is too good to be true, it usually is!

* At the request of the retirement home, we have used a stock photo to accompany this article and not an image of the residents. 

Will you please run a cybersecurity session for the retirees at our village to fit in with our Safety Month?". This was the gist of a request that came through to our National Case Management Centre...

The cybersecurity questions retirees need answered❓❓

It had been several months since Dave (aka The Boss) had decided it was time to do something different to create resilience in regional and remote communities. Our team of analysts had crunched the data which showed people living in these communities were nearly three times more likely to engage with a scammer. We knew the facts and the figures and we had a name for our program - Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinics (CROC). What was needed now was a place for our first clinic. And we couldn't go past the Laidley Pioneer Village.

WHY LAIDLEY? IDCARE developed a relationship with the volunteers at the Village after helping them get back their website (laidleypioneervillage.org.au) which had been taken over by international scammers using it as a fake website to "sell" an international clothing brand. We were contacted by clients who had bought clothing on the page and had lost money and compromised their identity. We discovered the volunteers at the Village had allowed the domain name to lapse and scammers had bought it. People were contacting the Village who had bought clothing and the volunteers were distraught!  We helped the volunteers build a new website and get their domain name back. Then it was a case of helping the Village get some good publicity and also raise awareness about the risks of scams - which is why it was perfect to host our first CROC!

THE CLINIC: Our crew, Dave, Rob, Erin, Tom and yours truly arrived at 9am for the clinic to start at 11am. By 10.15am there was already a small crowd and we were panicking (just a little) as to the numbers that would come through. We set up the huge tent in the 33 degree spring heat, put out the freshly made posters and erected the world's first "Scream at a Scammer booth", courtesy of an ensuite shower tent with a you-beaut microphone and sound shield inside. Dave and Rob did a short Q&A presentation on the scam risks impacting Laidley and the steps people can take to keep safe while Kathy manned the booth and Erin and Tom helped people check if they needed a "scambulance" on the ipads. By 1.30pm, we were done and hit the local pub for lunch and drink before the journey home. 


THE AFTER-EFFECT: TBH we weren't sure how much impact we'd had. The crowds initially promised didn't materialise and, other than capturing some great messages to send to a scammer and meeting the volunteers, we had no idea how to gauge whether it was worthwhile. But then, a few weeks later, we received this message from one of the people who attended on our Facebook page:


"I attended the mobile IDCARE at Laidley on Saturday and I was so glad I did. Fast forward to Tuesday and unbelievably my card was scammed. Because of IDCARE I was on top of it straight away and they only took $6.99 from my account before I cancelled my card. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE VITAL AND VALUABLE INFO YOU PROVIDED."


If we needed any encouragement for the work we were about to embark on, this was it!

It had been several months since Dave (aka The Boss) had decided it was time to do something different to create resilience in regional and remote communities. Our team of analysts...

A Pioneer Village, an international clothing giant and CROC's first visit

Updates

Out and about in Mildura

A CROC, a pirate and a few screams

CROC rolls into Maryborough

One of the reasons why we launched CROC

A CROC clinic at Australia's most iconic (but not the biggest) rock

What do primary school kids know about cyber safety?

NEWS FLASH: CROC has officially been launched 🚀

Planes, Potjie and CROC in the Alice Springs library

The cybersecurity questions retirees need answered❓❓

A Pioneer Village, an international clothing giant and CROC's first visit