A text or email says myGov, Medicare, or Centrelink needs urgent verification
A text, email, or SMS pretends to be from myGov, Medicare, Centrelink, or the ATO saying your account needs re-verification, that a payment is pending, or that access will be suspended. The link leads to a fake my.gov.au lookalike site that captures your myGov login, TFN, Medicare number, and driver's licence — data reused for tax refund theft and identity fraud.
Also known as: fake myGov text, Medicare phishing SMS, Centrelink verification scam, myGov login phishing, "my.gov.au" lookalike
Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes
- 1 Call your bank or card's fraud line right now. Use the number on the back of your card — not any number from the message or caller. Ask them to stop or reverse the payment and freeze the account.
- 2 If you paid by gift card, wire, or an app (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App): contact that company immediately and report it as fraud. Acting fast sometimes recovers the money.
- 3 Report to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The sooner, the better.
What to do right now
- 1 Do not click the link. Log into myGov by typing https://my.gov.au yourself and check your inbox for any real messages
- 2 For Medicare enquiries, log into your Medicare online account via my.gov.au or call 132 011 — never use a number from a text
- 3 If you already entered myGov credentials on the fake site: change your myGov password immediately from a clean device and check that your linked services (Medicare, Centrelink, ATO) are still yours
- 4 If you provided your Medicare number, TFN, or driver's licence, place a fraud alert with IDCARE (https://www.idcare.org) and monitor your credit file at Equifax and illion
- 5 Enable myGov Sign-in Options (passkeys or two-factor authentication with the myGov Code Generator app)
- 6 Report to Scamwatch at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam or ReportCyber at https://www.cyber.gov.au/report.
Red flags
- ⚠ myGov, Medicare, Centrelink, and the ATO never text you asking to click a link and re-verify your account or Medicare number
- ⚠ The link is not my.gov.au — it's a lookalike like 'mygov-au.com', 'medicare-verify.com', 'my-gov-services.com', or a shortened URL
- ⚠ The message threatens suspension of Medicare, Centrelink payments, or myGov access within 24-48 hours
- ⚠ The fake site asks for your myGov username, password, Medicare card number, TFN, driver's licence, AND bank details — a real service would need at most one of these
- ⚠ After you enter details on the fake site, you may be prompted with a 'verification code' step asking for the SMS code you just received from real myGov — that's the scammer using your creds to reset your MFA
Known variants
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Fake Centrelink refund variant: text or email says you have an unclaimed Centrelink refund or one-off payment, click the link to receive it. Fake site captures bank details 'to deposit the payment'. Real Centrelink refunds go automatically to the bank account on your file — no application required.
Last seen: 6/1/2026
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'Suspicious myGov login' text: message pretending to be a legitimate security alert asking you to 'confirm this login attempt' by clicking a link — the fake site captures the code you're now about to receive from the real myGov 2FA prompt.
Last seen: 6/20/2026