What is Brand Impersonation Fraud?
Brand Impersonation fraud is when scammers pretend to be a trusted company—like Azupay—to trick people into sending money or giving away personal information. They might use fake websites, emails, texts, or social media accounts that look like they’re from a real business.
These scams are designed to look real, but they’re not. The goal is to steal your money or identity.
Why It Matters – Especially with Payment Methods
Azupay helps Australians make real-time payments using the New Payments Platform (NPP), including PayID and PayTo. These are fast, secure, and trusted ways to pay.
Because Azupay payment solutions are used by millions of people in Australia and trusted by major brands and governments, scammers try to exploit that trust. They might:
- Pretend to be Azupay or one of our clients (like a government agency or major retailer)
- Ask you to make a payment using PayID or PayTo
- Create fake invoices or payment requests
Even though these scams don’t affect Azupay’s systems or our clients directly, they can hurt innocent people and damage our reputation.
How to Spot a Scammer Impersonating Azupay
While Azupay is a legitimate PayID payment provider for businesses and governments, we don’t provide payment methods for people selling or buying goods via Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree or other social media trading. We only ever make or receive transactions via your secure banking app, which should be logged into independently of any PayID based payment method to facilitate the payment, and our checkout is hosted on the azupay.com.au domain.
Here’s how to protect yourself:
1. Check the PayID Carefully
Azupay uses email-style PayIDs that match the business you’re paying. For example:
- If you’re paying a government department that uses Azupay, the PayID might look like:
[email protected]
Our genuine PayIDs never contain “azupay” in the domain (the part after the @ symbol).
If someone asks you to send money to a PayID like [email protected], it’s not us — it’s likely a scam.
2. Confirm the Payment Details
When entering a PayID into your banking app:
- The Payee Name should match the business you expect to pay
- The amount and payment description should make sense
- If anything looks off, don’t proceed
Azupay Will NEVER:
- Ask for your bank account login details
- Ask for your identity documents just to make a payment
- Send you a PayID that includes “azupay” in the domain
What You Should Do
If something feels off:
1. Stop and think – Don’t rush to pay or click anything.
2. Check the source – Contact the business directly using their official website or phone number.
3. Report it – you can report scams to:
-
- The National Anti-Scam Centre, ScamWatch an initiative of the ACCC. This is an authority that helps publish scam awareness material to Australian consumers, at Report a scam.
- Report the cybercrime to the Australian CyberSecurity Authority at Report | Cyber.gov.au and IDCare IDCARE Official Website | Identity Theft & Cyber Support to protect yourself against identity fraud if you have suffered monetary loss or provided information that could lead to identity theft, such as providing drivers license, tax file number or MediCare details.
- If original contact was via facebook marketplace: Report the Marketplace seller to Facebook as outlined under the “Marketplace or payment reports > Report a facebook Marketplace seller” option at Report Something | Facebook Help Center.
- If contact was made via WhatsApp: Report the WhatsApp userHow to block and report someone | WhatsApp Help Center
- If contact was made via Gumtree, report the Ad via the steps listed at Gumtree Australia Support Knowledgebase – Safety – Reporting Ads or Replies
- Report the URL used to conduct the scam to the Google Safe Browsing Link at Report a Phishing Page
4. Warn others – Let your friends and family know so they don’t fall for it.
Final Tip
If it feels dodgy, it probably is. Always double-check before sending money or sharing personal info—especially when it involves real-time payments.