The Sales-Season Scam Shield: 5 Fake Texts You Will Meet This Season — and Exactly What to Do

Every sales season delivers two things: the bargains, and five fake texts that ride in behind them. They are the same five every year — the parcel, the payment, the refund, the bill, the locked account — wearing the season's logos. This page introduces all five before they meet you, with exactly what to do for each one, so that when your phone buzzes in the November rush you are reading a rerun, not a premiere.

Here is the sentence that disarms the whole season: scammers do not need you to be careless — they need you to be busy. Sales weeks make everybody busy, everybody expecting parcels, everybody primed for a "your order failed" message to be real. Knowing the five scripts in advance is the shield; the rest of this page is the calendar, the habits, and every reporting number gathered in one place. If you are shopping the sales yourself, our Black Friday phone deals guide covers the buying side — this page covers the not-getting-robbed side, and it contains no shopping links at all.

Fake Text #1: The Parcel — "Delivery Failed, Pay to Reschedule"

What it looks like: an AusPost (or DHL, or Amazon) text saying a delivery failed, an address was incomplete, or a small fee is owed before your parcel can move. In the sales season you really are expecting parcels — which is precisely why this is fake number one.

Do this first: nothing inside the text. Australia Post never asks for payment by text to release a parcel, at any price, in any season. Close it, open the real Aus Post app, and track the parcel with the number from your purchase email. Not in the app? There is no parcel problem. Forward the text to 7726 and block the number. The complete tap-by-tap check lives in our Australia Post parcel scams guide.

Fake Text #2: The Payment — "Your myGov Payment Has Stopped"

What it looks like: a myGov or Centrelink text saying a payment is suspended, details need confirming, or money is waiting to be claimed — always with a link, often landing just when pension worries are easiest to provoke.

Do this first: remember the one rule that exposes every version — myGov and Services Australia never send a text or email with a link to sign in, confirm details, or claim money. A 'myGov' text with a link is a scam, every time, in every season. Check anything real by opening the myGov app yourself; if worry lingers, the Scams and Identity Theft Helpdesk is on 1800 941 126, and you can send the fake to [email protected]. The deep guide is our scam texts in Australia flagship.

Fake Text #3: The Refund — "Your Tax Refund Is Ready, Tap to Claim"

What it looks like: an ATO text about a refund waiting, a debt overdue, or bank details that "failed". Refund season and sales season are cousins — both prime your brain for money moving.

Do this first: nothing the text offers. The ATO never sends a text with a link to a sign-in page, and genuine refunds arrive through your normal myGov inbox and bank account, never through a surprise link. To check any tax claim, ring the ATO yourself on 1800 008 540 or sign in to myGov the normal way. Fakes can be forwarded to [email protected].

Fake Text #4: The Bill — "Your Telstra/Optus Service Will Be Cut Off"

What it looks like: a phone-company text saying a bill is overdue, points are expiring, or your service ends tonight unless you pay through the link. Sales season is when people are changing plans and buying phones, so telco costumes get a lot of wear.

Do this first: open your telco's official app — the one already on your phone — or find the bill in your email the usual way. If the account is fine there, the text was fiction. Never pay a bill through a link a text handed you, and never call a number printed inside one. If a suspicious number keeps ringing instead of texting, our who called me in Australia guide shows the safe way to check it — including the prefix table that exposes the premium-rate traps.

Fake Text #5: The Locked Account — "Suspicious Sale Purchase, Call This Number"

What it looks like: a bank text saying your account is locked or a big sales purchase needs approving — with a helpful phone number to call. This is the season's most dangerous text, because the theft doesn't happen on a fake page; it happens in a calm, professional voice, when you ring their number and get talked into moving money to a "safe account". There is no safe account. That transfer is the theft.

Do this first: never call a number that arrived inside a message. Turn your bank card over and call the number printed on the back, or open the bank's real app. A genuine fraud team will confirm in a minute whether anything is wrong, and real banks praise customers who hang up and ring back this way. And one seasonal addition: texts about gift cards — "your points convert today", "verify your gift card balance here" — belong to this same family. No genuine company checks gift cards by link.

The Season's Habits: Shop Like a Local, Check Like a Senior

Five small habits carry you through the whole calendar. One: track parcels only inside official apps — Aus Post for Australia Post, each shop's own app or site for the rest — never from a message. Two: reach every shop the way you reached this page — an address you type, an app you open — because fake store websites bloom in November beside the real ones. Three: pay the way that protects you — your normal card through the shop's real checkout, never a bank transfer to a stranger, never gift cards as payment for anything; no genuine seller or agency takes gift cards for debts. Four: expect the 'Unverified' label — since July 2026, texts from unregistered sender names arrive under that word, genuine reminders included; our 'Unverified' messages guide explains exactly how to read it. Five: brief the family before the flood — one message to the group chat ("it's scam-text season; nothing about money gets decided by a text") turns every relative into an extra pair of eyes, and a parent setting up a new phone this Christmas gets the full treatment in our phone setup guide for Mum or Dad in Australia.

Keep this page bookmarked beside our senior scam checklist — the checklist is the wall chart, this page is the season's field guide, and together they cover every doorway a scammer uses between November and New Year.

The Honourable Mention: Fake Stores Wearing Sale Logos

One trap this season isn't a text at all, so it earns an honourable mention. In November, fake shops bloom beside the real ones — websites and social-media adverts copying a famous store's sale creative, offering the season's most-wanted gifts at prices a fraction too good. The pattern is consistent: an ad you didn't seek, a store name spelt almost right, payment by bank transfer or card on a checkout that feels slightly off, and no parcel ever after. The defence mirrors everything above: reach shops by typing their real address or opening their real app; be doubly wary of any store an advert introduced you to; pay by your normal card through a checkout you recognise, never by transfer; and if a "store" only exists inside a social-media ad with the comments switched off, it isn't a store. Bought already and nothing arrived? That is the fake-store FAQ below — bank first, ReportCyber second.

Marketplace meetups deserve one sentence of their own in December: if you're buying or selling locally, meet in a public place in daylight, take someone with you, and never pay a "holding deposit" to a stranger's account for an item you haven't seen. The season's goodwill is real — it just needs the same doors-you-open rule as everything else on this page.

December's Second Wave: Boxing Day, Charity Appeals and the 12 Scams of Christmas

The season does not end on Christmas Day — it changes costume. Parcels keep arriving into the New Year (late gifts, exchanges, Boxing Day orders), so the parcel texts keep coming after 26 December too; run the same check in January as in November. The refund script flips to returns: "your refund is ready", "confirm your return to receive your money" — same link, same trap, answered the same way, inside the shop's real app or site. And December adds one script the other months barely use: the charity appeal. Scammers wear the names of real charities in the season of giving. Genuine charities never pressure you through a text link — if a cause moves you, type the charity's own website address yourself and give there.

Each festive season, Scamwatch publishes its "12 scams of Christmas" — the dozen patterns doing the rounds that year — and parcel scams, fake stores and impersonation messages are fixtures on the list. You have already met the five that matter most for a senior's phone on this page; the official list is worth a read at scamwatch.gov.au when December begins, because forewarned is the whole strategy. The season's goodwill is real. It just needs the same rule as everything else here: give, shop and celebrate through doors you open yourself.

The 10-second version: this season sends five fake texts — parcel, payment, refund, bill, locked account. You have now met all five. None of them can touch a person who checks inside the real app.

The golden rule: the sales can have your money when you decide, through doors you open — never because a text told you to hurry.