Scammers are using addresses in flood-affected parts of New South Wales to claim relief payments on behalf of families impacted by this year's floods.
Services Australia has reported that as far south as Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast, people have been receiving letters from Centrelink addressed to people unknown to them.
General manager Hank Jongen said the letters were likely to be a result of attempted fraud, with scammers obtaining Centrelink account details.
"They're aware of an address and they're using their identity to try and lodge a claim in relation to that property.
Some Mid North Coast residents have reported they have had people from as far away as Western Australia attempt to claim money on their behalf.
Mr Jongen said that many of these cases were readily identifiable.
"They're very easy for us to clear up because the actual person legitimately eligible for the payment, we have their records."
"If you're a person that's received a letter addressed to someone else at your address, by all means, give us a call."
Mr Jongen said a balance was required between strong auditing measures and ensuring money was delivered in time to those who needed it.
"The overwhelming majority of those are people that are honest in their dealings with us," he said.
"We've got to strike a balance here between protecting taxpayers' money but not holding up payments."
Mr Jongen denied that people actually in need of the flood funding were having applications denied for genuine mistakes.
"What we're really concerned about is the systematic cases where people set out to defraud the organisation."
Different forms of scams emerging
Letters in mailboxes are not the only means fraudsters have used in an attempt to claim relief funding in the wake of February's floods.
"It varies from highly sophisticated to pretty dumb attempts," Mr Jongen said.
"We've had instances of people lifting images off Google to try and confirm their home has been flooded – in many instances they're not even in Australia."
The crimes can carry significant punishments – in some cases incarceration.
One person in NSW was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment and ordered to repay more than $20,000.
"If you've provided deliberately with false and misleading information, it is referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions," Mr Jongen said.
