Author Archives: Ernie Brigham

Find A Probus Club

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FIND YOUR LOCAL PROBUS CLUB

Probus provides an exciting opportunity to meet retirees in your local community. If you are retired or semi – retired, you can join a Probus Club and hear interesting speakers, attend monthly meetings and enjoy a wide range of activities such as walking, theatre, coffee groups, lunches and day outings.

As a Probus member you will also have access to a range of exclusive member benefits.

So what are you waiting for, use the Club Locator below to find your local Probus Club and join 110,000 retirees across Australia and New Zealand.

Club Locator

Type in a suburb, postcode and select a State (AUS) or Region (NZ) to find your nearest club

Australian Seniors News

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Link below

https://australianseniorsnews.com.au/

Welcome to Australian Seniors News

Your Australian Seniors News team are dedicated to bringing you stories from all of Australia’s leading Seniors organisations, along with news, current affairs and lifestyle features that are of interest to the growing Seniors community across the country. As your nationwide Seniors news service, we pride ourselves on bringing you stories that are relevant to issues that affect you on a daily basis – at a local and national level. Whether it’s news and current affairs, sport or politics that interests you, or you’re looking for retiree financial advice or for the latest developments in the retirement living sector, it’s all at your fingertips at australianseniorsnews.com.au And the Australian Seniors News team is always happy to hear from you – please drop us a line at newsdesk@australianseniorsnews.com.au with any feedback, news tips or comments you’d like to share with us. Please subscribe and enjoy!

 

Scams Awareness 2018

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Fake tradies recently scammed a Beaumaris pensioner out of $30,000.

These dodgy tradies (also known as travelling con men) offer to do maintenance work then disappear leaving unfinished or substandard work. They target vulnerable Victorians, people from CALD backgrounds, or older people who may live alone.

We’re asking for your help in spreading awareness of fake tradies through your channels. Below is a suggested copy and an accompanying image that you can share with your audience.

We appreciate your help in getting the word out to the public.

Thank you
Sandra

Suggested copy

As the weather warms up, fake tradies will be knocking on doors and dropping leaflets, offering home improvement services.

What sounds too good to be true, often is. These dodgy operators tend to vanish after completing little work, leaving behind a consumer who has already handed over a sizeable cash deposit.

One unsuspecting pensioner was recently scammed out of $30,000 after fake tradies lied to him about receiving a fine.

Visit Consumer Affairs Victoria’s website for tips on fake tradies tactics: consumer.vic.gov.au/faketradies

Sandra Youkhana
Public Relations and Digital Advisor

Education & Online Services | Consumer Affairs Victoria
Department of Justice and Regulation

Level 19, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
T. 03 8684 8130 M. 0431 466 051 E. sandra.youkhana@justice.vic.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria
and pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders, past, present and future.

Fake tradies recently scammed a Beaumaris pensioner out of $30,000.

These dodgy tradies (also known as travelling con men) offer to do maintenance work then disappear leaving unfinished or substandard work. They target vulnerable Victorians, people from CALD backgrounds, or older people who may live alone.

We’re asking for your help in spreading awareness of fake tradies through your channels. Below is a suggested copy and an accompanying image that you can share with your audience.

We appreciate your help in getting the word out to the public.

Thank you
Sandra

Suggested copy

As the weather warms up, fake tradies will be knocking on doors and dropping leaflets, offering home improvement services.

What sounds too good to be true, often is. These dodgy operators tend to vanish after completing little work, leaving behind a consumer who has already handed over a sizeable cash deposit.

One unsuspecting pensioner was recently scammed out of $30,000 after fake tradies lied to him about receiving a fine.

Visit Consumer Affairs Victoria’s website for tips on fake tradies tactics: consumer.vic.gov.au/faketradies

Sandra Youkhana
Public Relations and Digital Advisor

Education & Online Services | Consumer Affairs Victoria
Department of Justice and Regulation

Level 19, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
T. 03 8684 8130 M. 0431 466 051 E. sandra.youkhana@justice.vic.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria
and pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders, past, present and future.

 Fake tradies recently scammed a Beaumaris pensioner out of $30,000.

These dodgy tradies (also known as travelling con men) offer to do maintenance work then disappear leaving unfinished or substandard work. They target vulnerable Victorians, people from CALD backgrounds, or older people who may live alone.

We’re asking for your help in spreading awareness of fake tradies through your channels. Below is a suggested copy and an accompanying image that you can share with your audience.

We appreciate your help in getting the word out to the public.

Thank you
Sandra

Suggested copy

As the weather warms up, fake tradies will be knocking on doors and dropping leaflets, offering home improvement services.

What sounds too good to be true, often is. These dodgy operators tend to vanish after completing little work, leaving behind a consumer who has already handed over a sizeable cash deposit.

One unsuspecting pensioner was recently scammed out of $30,000 after fake tradies lied to him about receiving a fine.

Visit Consumer Affairs Victoria’s website for tips on fake tradies tactics: consumer.vic.gov.au/faketradies

Sandra Youkhana
Public Relations and Digital Advisor

Education & Online Services | Consumer Affairs Victoria
Department of Justice and Regulation

Level 19, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
T. 03 8684 8130 M. 0431 466 051 E. sandra.youkhana@justice.vic.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria
and pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders, past, present and future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Website Reigistration

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PAV Member Clubs 

Website Registration procedure for club secretaries

To access directories for Guest Speakers and Club Outings, you must register your club by mouse clicking this link http://www.probusvic.com.au/login.html?view=registration and your Club will then be registered by the PAV secretary and have directory access. 

Then mouse click directories in menu above.

Registration will ask for your Club and secretary name, and your Probus club number issued by PSPL.

Choice of Password. We are advised by our webmaster for the club secretary to create and type in a password of minimum 8 digits comprising letters and numbers or symbols. This is to prevent website hacking which has become prevalent.

Finally, confirm the password, and confirm club email address. Then click ‘Register’.

– once they activate their email address, the PAV Secretary is then sent an email to authorise the account and you should then be able to access the directories or member only pages that may be created in the future.

IMPORTANT

Club secretaries be sure to record your club’s password in your club’s minutes and securely record for future secretaries.

       

Beware of Scams

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**** BEWARE OF SCAMS ****

 

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A VICTIM OF A SCAM?

 

It is sometimes said that Seniors are easy targets for perpetrators of scams!

 

To avoid getting caught by a scam and be forewarned

go to 

http://www.accc.gov.au/publications/the-little-black-book-of-scams

and do your homework today!

 

Latest Scamwatch Tips

Beware of scammers impersonating energy and telecommunications companies

The ACCC is warning consumers to beware of scammers impersonating energy and telecommunications providers and demanding payments.

Scamwatch has received 5000 reports of fake billing scams in the last 12 months, with reported losses of close to $8000.

“The scammers typically impersonate well known companies such as Origin, AGL, Telstra and Optus via email, to fool people into assuming the bills are real,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“They send bulk emails or letters which include a logo and design features closely copied from the genuine provider. The bill states the account is overdue and if not paid immediately the customer will incur late charges or be disconnected.”

“Alternatively, the bill may claim that the customer has overpaid and is owed a refund or it may simply say the bill is due and ready to pay,” Ms Rickard said.

New South Wales residents reported the highest number of incidents of the fake billing scam, with 1779 households reporting being victims, compared to 1275 in Queensland and 1245 in Victoria, 485 in Western Australia, 462 in South Australia, 132 in the ACT, 117 in Tasmania and 38 in the Northern Territory.

“Older Australians should particularly be wary of emails pretending to be from utility companies, with people over 65 reporting the most fake utility billing scam incidents,” Ms Rickard said.

“I advise consumers to contact their communications or energy provider directly via the company’s official channels to verify that the email or letter is actually from them.”

“Customers should never use the contact details provided on the suspicious email or letter but instead use an independent source to locate contact details such as a past bill or the phone book.”

In one case reported to the ACCC, a customer received a fake Telstra bill in the mail. The bill stated the customer’s account was overdue and immediate payment was needed. The customer dialled the phone number provided and was asked for his date of birth and driver’s licence number to confirm his identity.

“If customers are duped into phoning scammers they will then attempt to steal as much personal information as they can,” Ms Rickard said.

Other tips on how consumers can protect themselves:

  • If you receive a bill outside of your normal billing cycle, or don’t expect to receive an overdue notice, call your provider to check whether it is legitimate.
  • If you are not a customer of the company simply delete the email.
  • Never click on links or open attachments in an email from an unverified sender – they may contain a malicious virus.
  • Never send money or give credit card details, online account details or personal information to anyone you don’t know or trust and never by email or over the phone.
  • Keep your computer secure – always update your firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and only buy from a verified source.
 

 To stay one step ahead of scammers, learn more by visiting the ACCC’s Scamwatch website


Protect yourself—sign up to Scamwatch

www.scamwatch.gov.au

—where you can sign up for free email alerts on new scams targeting consumers and small businesses. You can also follow Scamwatch on Twitter at @scamwatch_gov or http://twitter.com/scamwatch_gov.