Highlights
- Smartraveller alerts Aussies overseas against scam offering flights, seeking credit card details
- ‘DFAT will never request payment over the phone’: Smartraveller website
- Vulnerable Aussies stranded overseas are contacted by DFAT for government-arranged flights: DFAT
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has issued a warning to Australian residents through Smartraveller that Australians overseas are being contacted by people claiming to be from the department, offering flights and requesting credit card information.
Smartraveller is DFAT’s its advisory service for Australians travelling and living overseas.
“DFAT will never request payment over the phone,” stated the alert published on the Smartraveller website.
If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from DFAT seeking payment for one of these flights, please hang up
Elaborating on the alert, a DFAT spokesperson told SBS Hindi that it was also shared on their social media accounts.
“The Department takes its privacy obligations and the handling of personal information very seriously,” the spokesperson said.
"Since the start of the pandemic, DFAT has facilitated 154 government facilitated flights on which more than 23,000 Australians have returned. Of these, 56 facilitated flights departed from India,'' the spokesperson added.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had announced the weekly halving of international flight arrivals which has left thousands of Australians stranded overseas.
Australians concerned about the scam have been advised to contact DFAT online or call the Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305. Source: AAP Image/Steve Parsons/PA via AP
The alert also stated that DFAT is arranging facilitated commercial flights with Qantas to Australians back home.
“We contact vulnerable Australians to ensure they are prioritised on these flights. We’re in the process of contacting relevant consular clients to warn them of this potential scam,” the alert added.
Australians concerned about the scam have been advised to contact DFAT online or call the Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305
The current cap on weekly flight arrivals will remain effective till 31 August and will be reviewed by National Cabinet before the end of next month, according to a media statement from the prime minister’s office issued on 9 July.
Referring to Australians stranded overseas, foreign minister Marise Payne, in a recent interview to a news channel, had said, “we have just over, I think, 36,000 currently indicating they wish to return.”
She added that the number changes very often as people’s circumstances change.
“We have 47,000 registered with DFAT and, as I said, 36,000 or so who’ve indicated their wish to return. So, we are planning those flights through the Howard Springs facility each fortnight and pursuing those from a number of locations overseas where we have a presence, a significant presence, of people,” Minister Payne had said.
