Scammers masquerade as ACCC to steal money Scammers have hijacked the ACCC's name in an attempt to trick people into handing over their money Scammers have hijacked the name of the agency charged with protecting people from scams in their latest attempt to trick people into handing over money. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned the public that fraudsters are using the ACCC name in a hoax email advising people they were entitled to $400. The email, from the address acccgovau@gmail.com, says an ACCC action against a scammer resulted in an order to pay $195,000. It goes on to say individuals are entitled to $400 each and should ring a particular phone number. "This is clearly a fake email that relies upon the public trust in the organisation it pretends to represent," said Delia Rickard, deputy chair of the ACCC, which runs SCAMwatch. It is yet another variation of the reclaim scam that sees scammers claim to represent the government, a bank or some other trusted organisation and offer refunds, grants or other monies. The ACCC recorded 7890 complaints related to reclaim scams between January and July this year, with losses of more than $350,000. It recorded 7740 related complaints in 2013. The agency, which in September joined an international sweep on thousands of dating websites to curb romance scams, became aware of the email hoax on the weekend. "While the number of reports to the ACCC is currently low, we know that this is a high volume scam that will seek to contact as many people as possible in the coming weeks," a spokesman said.