Your Safety Network: Fraud and Scam Reporting for NDIS Participants
Image description: A young man sits at a computer, with another man standing behind him looking at the screen.
In today’s digital age, having a strong safety network is more important than ever. Your safety net includes your friends, family, carers, and the many organisations out there working to protect you from fraud and scams.
Unfortunately, fraud, scams, and other dodgy behaviours are on the rise, especially those targeting NDIS participants. That’s why we’ve put together this guide just for you - to help expand your safety network.
Here, you’ll find essential resources to report any suspicious activities and check if your identity is secure. By staying vigilant and knowing where to report issues, you can help protect yourself and your NDIS plan. Let’s work together to ensure you have peace of mind and the support you deserve, making the safety network even stronger for everyone in the community.
Who else is in your safety network?
Login or signup to the Kinora community and share with us!
Check if your data has been breached
🌐 ';--have i been pwned?
Use this website to check if your email address has been involved in a data breach. This is an important step in ensuring that your identity is safe. Knowing about a potential breach helps you put things in place to protect you.
Make sure your devices are secure
🌐 eSafety Technology Check Up Quiz
This quiz will help you identify if your technology devices are secure, and will provide you with guidance to secure them if need be.
The entire eSafety website is full of resources that help keep us all safe online. I highly recommend you have a browse through all their content.
Report concerns about your NDIS services
🌐 NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
If you have any concerns about your current NDIS supports or services, it is important to discuss them with the Quality and Safeguards Commission. They handle complaints about supports or services that were not provided in a safe and respectful way or not delivered to an appropriate standard.
If you have already spoken to your provider directly about your concerns and you’re not happy with how they managed it, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission can also help with the next steps.
You can raise a complaint via the link above or contact them via phone on 1800 035 544.
Report scams and get the latest scam alerts
🌐 Scamwatch
Here you can report all those text, email, phone call, and website scams that seem never ending. It’s important to report scams, even if they were only an attempt, so that scamwatch can work with organisations to protect everyone and have removed.
The Scam Watch site can also help you keep up with the latest scam tactics, making it easier to spot them when they happen to you.
Report NDIS related scams and fraud
🌐 NDIA Fraud Reporting
If you’ve witnessed any suspicious behaviour, or are concerned that someone may be trying to scam or fraudulently access your or your loved ones’ NDIS funding, you should report it direct to the NDIA.
They also have a hotline you can report it by calling 1800 650 717, or emailing fraudreporting@ndis.gov.au.
Report ATO impersonation scams
🌐 Australian Taxation Office
If you’ve been contacted by someone impersonating the ATO, you should report it here, even if you haven’t lost any money. Not sure if it was really them? They also have a hotline to verify, just call 1800 008 540 to check if the contact was legitimate.
Report Services Australia scams and identity theft
🌐 Services Australia
This is where you can report any scams relating to Services Australia, which includes MyGov, Medicare, Centrelink, and Child Support. If you’ve received a concerning call, or clicked on a suspicious link, you can also contact their scams helpdesk by calling 1800 941 126, or emailing reportascam@servicesaustralia.gov.au.
Report Online Harm or Abuse
🌐 eSafety Commissioner Officer
The eSafety Commissioner helps remove serious online abuse, and illegal and restricted online content. You can use this link to report any instance of cyberbullying, adult cyber abuse, or image based abuse.
Report a cybercrime
🌐 Australian Cyber Security Centre
The ACSC is the place to go to report a cybercrime, incident or vulnerability. This website is another great one to learn about cyber security, so have a click around and learn the basics of protecting yourself in the digital world.
Report a problem with a product or service you bought
🌐 Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
If you’ve purchased an item or a service and there’s a problem with it, regardless of whether you used NDIS funding or not, you are covered under consumer rights. While the ACCC can’t get directly involved in the issue, they do have steps you should follow, and you can report the issue to them to help stop the same things happening to others.
If you had a bad experience with the NDIA
🌐 NDIA Feedback Form
Whether you feel you’ve been treated unfairly, or you received subpar treatment from a specific employee, you should provide feedback directly to the NDIA about your experience. They should take your complaint on board and contact you within two days, hopefully with a way to resolve the issue, or refer it on to someone, or a different organisation, that can help.
Putting forward a complaint can help keep the NDIA accountable, and ensure other participants are getting fair treatment also. Also as the linked form, you can call 1800 800 110 with your feedback.
For support with digital identity concerns
🌐 ID Care
This organisation can help after you’ve been the victim of scams, fraud, identity theft, data breach and other cyber concerns. They provide both practical and behavioural support, including advice on the best steps to take for your situation.
They can also help following the loss of a loved one or a relationship breakdown, to manage online accounts or preserve content.
Check your online health data privacy
🌐 Digital Health Australia
With our health information now being stored mostly online, it’s important that only those that need to see it can access it. Using the above link, you should follow these steps to secure your health data:
Check and update your privacy settings, including your contact details.
Set up notifications to see when someone accesses your record.
Hide or restrict access - you control who sees what.
Choose what information you want included on your record.
In an emergency
If something has happened and you are in immediate danger or at risk of harm, please call 000. If you’re not sure whether it’s an emergency, but something serious has happened, you can call the police on 131 444 for assistance.
Let’s strengthen the safety net
By staying informed and vigilant, you help protect not just yourself, but everyone in the NDIS community from fraud and scams. Reporting suspicious activities, even if you haven't lost money, makes a big difference in keeping us all safe. Let’s work together to connect our safety networks, share information, and support each other.
Want more help spotting fraud and scams?
Check out the red flag behaviours all NDIS participants should be aware of, and download our scam warning signs fact sheet.
