Consumer Protection is warning Western Australians to get health information and advice about COVID-19 coronavirus from official and reliable sources, and not be fooled by misinformation circulating in the community, primarily via social media. A variety of fake cures and prevention tips are being promoted including gargling with salt water, drinking extraordinary amounts of water or certain...

The average price of regular unleaded petrol (ULP) is set to increase by around 13 cents per litre (cpl) to 133.5 cpl tomorrow, so FuelWatch is encouraging Perth drivers, if they can, to fill up today to save money. FuelWatch advises that on Wednesday 18 March 2020, most branded retailers are hiking their ULP price - 7-Eleven hiking by 28.8 cpl to 143.7 cpl, Caltex to 141.9 cpl, BP to 139.9 cpl,...

WorkSafe is investigating the work-related death of a 25-year-old worker at Condingup (east of Esperance) yesterday. The man was believed to have been working on the roof of a shed when he and another worker fell. The other worker was injured in the fall. Inspectors travelled to the site this morning and will interview witnesses and investigate the circumstances. WorkSafe thoroughly investigates...

The Western Australian public holidays for the 2020 Easter period are: Good Friday – Friday 10 April Easter Monday – Monday 13 April While Easter Saturday is not a public holiday in Western Australia, some WA awards require employees to be paid additional rates on this day. To check if this applies to your situation visit the WA award summaries page or alternatively contact Wageline on 1300 655...

A major international company with an office in Perth is facing a $30 million ransom demand from cyber criminals who locked its computer system in Australia, resulting in a partial interruption to online trading for a short period of time. A company official has assured Consumer Protection that the personal data of clients has not been compromised and, after a brief system outage, the company is...

The average price of regular unleaded petrol (ULP) is set to increase by around 12 cents per litre (cpl) to 139.4 cpl tomorrow, so FuelWatch is encouraging Perth drivers, if they can, to fill up today to save money. FuelWatch advises that on Wednesday 11 March 2020, most branded retailers are hiking their ULP price - 7-Eleven hiking by 29.8 cpl to 149.7 cpl, Caltex to 148.9 cpl, Puma to 147.7 cpl...

With Commissioner for Consumer Protection Lanie Chopping When it comes to email scams, many of us think of unsolicited and badly-spelt requests for money landing in our inboxes from dodgy email accounts. But the reality is that email scams are now so sophisticated and believable they’re almost impossible to tell apart from the real thing. One such ruse is the payment redirection or ‘man in the...

Concert-goers are being warned to avoid paying for tickets via PayPal using the ‘friends and family’ function, as these transactions are not covered by the financial service’s buyer protection policy. The warning comes as Consumer Protection has received numerous complaints from Western Australians unable to retrieve their money after using this function to transfer funds to scammers posing as...

The average price of regular unleaded petrol (ULP) is set to increase by 11 cents per litre (cpl) to 141.5 cpl tomorrow, so FuelWatch is encouraging Perth drivers, if they can, to fill up today to save money. FuelWatch advises that on Wednesday 4 March 2020, most branded retailers are hiking their ULP price - Caltex hiking by 26 cpl to 149.9 cpl and Caltex Woolworths, Puma and 7-Eleven to 149.7...

With Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Lanie Chopping Perth’s rental prices have flat-lined for almost three years, but there are strong indications the market could be resuscitated in 2020. According to REIWA, the number of rental listings fell nine per cent in the last three months of 2019 – helping to nudge down the vacancy rate to 2.4 per cent and resulting in increased competition among...

Failing to lodge bonds on time and inaccurate record-keeping has resulted in a Karratha real estate agent being ordered to pay $24,069 in fines and costs by the Perth Magistrates Court. Peard Real Estate Karratha collected bonds from six tenants in the Karratha region between September 2017 and January 2018, but failed to lodge them within 14 days as required by the Residential Tenancies Act. The...