A Dubbo cafe working to get back on its feet after coronavirus has had its social media account "hacked" and its followers targeted in a scam.
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The Gallery Dubbo owner Georgia Stevens said she "freaked out" on Wednesday when she learnt a giveaway competition she was running on Facebook was hit by dodgy activity.
A fake account in her business's name sent the almost 500 entrants a message that they had won, and a link to a site that then told them to enter their credit card details to redeem the prize.
A shocked Ms Stevens reported the fake page to Facebook and posted a message advising of the scam.
She reported "a few of our customers" had handed over their credit card details, and that she had contacted them, advising them to see their bank.
"We had a few phone calls, no one's angry about it, because it's not even us, we can't do much about it, but I think people are understanding and they've contacted their banks, so I don't think anything's happened to anyone yet," Ms Stevens said.
The cafe owner said she understood another Dubbo business had also been targeted in a similar scam in the same week.
The nasty experience comes after COVID-19 restrictions forced the cafe to close its doors at the Western Plains Cultural Centre for more than two months.
It had only reopened on June 1, and had taken to Facebook to run the giveaway of a breakfast for two as a promotion, asking people to like and share the post.
"We've only just opened up, and then that happens," Ms Stevens said.
"This is a prime time where we want to be advertising and be doing these giveaways to get people back in the door.
"...It's really concerning, if I do do another post, will it happen again, will it tarnish my reputation for doing these giveaways."
Ms Stevens issued a warning to the community to beware.
"I can't reiterate enough how careful people have to be when they're giving their credit card details out over Facebook especially, because we would never ask for someone's credit card details through social media, at all," she said.
Scamwatch is run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
It provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams.
In 2018, Scamwatch received 177,516 scam reports, representing a 10 per cent increase from the 161,528 reports in 2017, according to an ACCC report of scams activity released last month.
The year 2018 had the highest level of financial loss ever reported to Scamwatch with $107 million reported lost, an 18 per cent increase from the previous year. The average of losses reported to Scamwatch was $5997.