Australians are being warned about a new wave of scam text messages targeting people with a Medicare card, with authorities urging people not to click on suspicious links.
The messages appear legitimate at first glance and claim to be from myGov, telling recipients their Medicare card needs to be renewed by clicking a link.
“In accordance with active guidelines, your Medicare card should be renewed by April 2026,” the text reads.
“Proceed via the link below.”
The message then asks users to reply with a “Y” and copy and paste a link into Safari, and says it has been sent from “MyGov Customer Service Centre”.
Authorities say the messages are a phishing attempt and warn that the link does not lead to an authorised government website. Australians have been urged to delete or ignore the texts.
Services Australia said it is aware of scammers pretending to be from Medicare and confirmed it will never ask people to click on a link in a text message or email to update their details.
“If your Medicare card is about to expire, you don’t need to do anything,” Services Australia said.
“We’ll send you a new card about four to eight weeks before it expires.”
The agency also said it will never ask people to use a link to receive a repayment, log in to a Medicare account using a QR code or URL, or provide credit card details to access a Medicare entitlement.
The federal government’s National Anti-Scam Centre said it is also aware of scammers pretending to be trusted government organisations such as myGov, Services Australia, Centrelink and the ATO.
“These scammers try to get your personal information by sending a link in a text message,” a spokesperson said.
“Never click on links in messages; instead, search for the website yourself or use the organisations secure, authenticated app or portal to see if it is real.
“The National Anti-Scam Centre remains concerned about text message scams, and our Scamwatch website has information about warning signs and how to avoid scams via text message.”
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