Australian ministers are targets in Telegram phishing scam

A Sky News television broadcast reporter on Sunday tweeted that someone had been impersonating Birmingham in a Telegram account and sending messages to contacts. — Bloomberg

The Australian Federal Police said it’s investigating a phishing scam that targeted senior Australian ministers through the Telegram messaging app on their mobile phones.

The phishing campaign, which was first reported to authorities on March 18, “appears to be in the form of a message from an associate and encourages recipients to download a messaging app for further communication”, the Australian Federal Police said in a statement on Sunday. While it didn’t name the officials involved, on Monday Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said he had been targeted.