Due to a hepatitis A risk, a batch of frozen berries have been recalled

There are concerns for the safety of federal politicians after a surge in abuse and death threats.

Reports to police have tripled in recent years, with COVID-19 anger and conspiracy theories being blamed.

A hanging noose, an effigy of Victoria's premier and threats of violence: they're scenes highlighting a disturbing trend of increasing aggression towards Australia's elected officials.

In 2022, the AFP received 582 reports of harassment and threats aimed at federal politicians.

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Of those, 82 happened during the election campaign.

Only two resulted in charges, while 14 investigations are ongoing.

The Liberal senator who requested the figures says the escalation was driven in part by frustration over pandemic restrictions.

"A lot of these threats happen online and on social media and email, a proportion were in relation to public health measures, " Victorian Senator James Paterson said.

Neil Fergus, from security advisers Intelligent Risks, said: "The numbers have tripled during the federal election cycle between the last two elections.

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"It's a sewer out there if you dive into the extreme ideology and it isn't just extreme right, it's also extreme left."

The reasons for abuse are wide ranging.

For Nationals leader David Littleproud, his advocacy for the live export trade sparked frightening threats against his family

"I was actually in the Middle East and had a call from the Federal Police to say that someone had put a death threat on me but also my children. They were going to do to my children what apparently I was doing to live sheep," Littleproud said.

In recent years, the murder of two UK politicians sparked a review of politician security in Australia and the AFP says it takes every threat seriously.

"It's critically important we continue evaluating support provided to MPs and senators to make sure this doesn't turn into a tragedy," Paterson, said.

Nicholas Tadros, the young Sydney boy critically-injured in the Sea World helicopter crash on the Gold Coast, has been taken off life-support and is responding "very well" to treatment, his father says.

The 10-year-old has been fighting for his life in hospital following the January 2 crash that claimed the lives of four others, including his mother Vanessa.

Family friend Charlie Bakhos shared an update from his father Simon on Facebook, five days after Nicholas underwent a "mammoth" six-hour surgery.

READ MORE: Gold Coast chopper crash survivors release images of aftermath

"Nicky has been off life support now for a few days," he said in the message.

"His body has responded very well, still on the ventilator machine to support his breathing."

The father added that Nicholas has a long road to recovery, but initial signs are hopeful.

READ MORE: French chateau cost the same as a Sydney apartment

"They have lowered his sedation medicine at times to see if he is responsive and he has woken up and (been) able to respond to some questions with a nod or shake of the head.

"He is also able to hold my hand but still no movement in his legs yet, have been advised that could be due to the broken bones in both his legs."

Nicholas is facing two more surgeries this week.

His recovery comes after his dad earlier said, "there was a scare finding jet fuel had gotten in his lungs."

The updates comes as hundreds of mourners gather in the Gold Coast to mourn the victims of the crash.

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Pilot Ash Jenkinson, British newlyweds Diane and Ron Hughes and Vanessa Tadros died when the two aircraft, operated by Sea World Helicopters, collided shortly before 2:00pm.

Geelong mother and son Winnie de Silva were also critically injured in the crash but their conditions later improved in hospital.

The Civil Aviation Authority said earlier this week Sea World Helicopters would need its permission before resuming flights.

With soils soaked in the north, swathes of the south are drying out fast.

After Hale, forecasters say another tropical cyclone could form west of Vanuatu next week.

Juliette Jones was pumped about going on family holiday in a caravan she'd put a deposit on.

However, within minutes of paying, the seller disappeared from Facebook Marketplace leaving her without a caravan and minus A$548.

Jones says she feels stupid now for trusting the seller, but has since found many victims of the scam who paid much more than what she did.

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A 4 Berth Lunar caravan for $4207 was making rounds on Facebook Marketplace between December 22 and 23 – however it turned to be a scam.

Jones was one of the people who put a deposit on the scam and said the seller was "incredibly communicative and responsive".

"We decided to message the seller to see if it was available. He got back straight away and said it's available and viewing's tomorrow at 11am.

"He was incredibly communicative and send me about 15 photos of this caravan, which I checked up on CARJAM.

The registration and warrant matched a real caravan, but Jones had no way of knowing it wasn't the sellers.

"We did this even though the price was cheap, we validated as much as we could.

"We asked him whether we could view it and he replied saying it's sold and the pickup's pending. I thought that was quick and asked him to let me know if that falls through."

"Then there were this backwards and forwards of him saying it's pending and I said we were happy to pay a small deposit to book it, and we can pick it up in the morning."

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Jones said the seller's profile seemed genuine – three kids in the cover picture, a picture of a boat and a Facebook member since 2005.

So they made the deposit – within minutes, the profiles went down, and he was gone.

After the incident, Jones got in touch with another person on Facebook who had been in contact with four or five other people who had fallen for the same scam.

"Same caravan, same person and all different deposits.

"We were fortunate how much we paid compared to what some others did.

"We got so excited, and whilst we were trying to check him out, he texted and said "oh look, I have got five other people waiting, I'll give you five minutes and tell them it's pending".

"He hurried us, and we were getting swept up with the excitement of going on our trip in the caravan."

A single mother from Hawkes Bay told Stuff she lost $2286 deposit on the same caravan.

READ MORE: The French chateau that costs the same as Sydney unit

Jordan Heersping, CERT NZ manager of threat and incident response, says Facebook marketplace is a tricky place because it is not well regulated outside the Facebook environment.

"One of the primary things people can look out for are deals that look too good to be true – if you see something that is usually $1000 and is put up for $150, then probably not something that is actually legitimate sale."

Heersping said while depending on the reporting, scammers might get their profiles deactivated, but it was not difficult for someone actively malicious to create a new profile and do the same thing under a different name.

"It is really tricky with names and faces online. It is almost impossible to tell how genuine someone is.

"It is possible the genuine profile from 15-20 years ago was compromised by a person who is doing the scamming, so they manage to get a legitimate person's username and password and use their name and face to carry out the scam."

The difference between legitimate sales and scams were minimal and sometimes don't eventuate till afterwards, Heersping said.

"We get quite a few reports of scams and also reports of facebook profiles being compromised. There's a lot of activity on social media and all over the internet, but these affect day-to-day people."

A Consumer Protection spokesperson said the Consumer Guarantees Act did not apply to private sales like private sale online and garage sales.

"However, private buyers who have a grievance about their purchase can make a claim in the Disputes Tribunal."

Fallen victim to a Facebook Marketplace Scam?

1. Stop all contact with the scammer – Once you realise you are being scammed, do not continue the communication and block the scammer from contacting you.

2. Do not make any more payments – Some scammers target people caught in recent scams, e.g, by pretending to be an enforcement agency that can return all your money for a fee. Do not give money to anyone promising they will get your lost money back.

3. Contact the bank or service you sent money through – If you are the victim of a financial scam, credit card scam or identity theft, contact your bank immediately. The sooner your bank knows about it the greater the likelihood of getting the money back.

4. Report the Scam – If you have lost money, you should report the scam to the police and complete the instructions on Facebook so that others do not fall victim to the same scam. You can report scams on Facebook Marketplace.

This story originally appeared on Stuff and has been reproduced with permission.

The number of occupants in the car and their condition is not yet known.

Three times in the last three years a driver has crashed into the Tinwald rail bridge.

Two extremes will play out across opposite ends of Australia over the coming days as Queensland grapples with life-threatening flash flooding, and a fast-moving bushfire threatens parts of Western Australia.

Intense rainfall from a monsoon trough is expected the lash the Sunshine State, including south-eastern parts of Herbert and Lower Burdekin before extending over the Central Coast and Whitsundays later today.

Meanwhile people in south-west WA are right now under serious threat from a bushfire which is moving quickly towards homes in Donnybrook-Balingup.

READ MORE: Staggering cost of standard doctor's appointment revealed

Parts of Queensland could see its heaviest rain in years.

"This trough may bring about widespread rainfall totals of ~150-300mm along the coast and adjacent inland areas between Tully and Rockhampton, with isolated totals potentially reaching ~500-600mm during this period," Weatherzone warns.

The heaviest rainfall have been seen at Forbes Road, near Brisbane, which recorded 235 mm at Forbes Road since 9am yesterday.

In the last three days Mackay Airport and Mackay station have recorded 292.4mm and 284mm, the highest three-day rainfall in 5.8 years for both locations.

The downpours have caused chaos for emergency services, closing main roads as well as the Bruce, Gregory and Capricorn Highways.

In the last 24 hours, at least two people have required rescuing.

READ MORE: A luxury cruise took passengers somewhere they never expected to be

The warnings come as the south-east grappled with a heatwave that's fuelled fierce fires.

WA's Department of Fires and Emergency Services has issued a bushfire emergency alert around Donnybrook-Boyup Brook Road, warning some residents it's too late to leave and to shelter in place.

Residents can stay across updates here. 

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The fire has already burned more than 5,000 hectares of land.

Meanwhile, Victoria experienced one of its hottest days of the years yesterday, with the mercury reaching over 35C.

A fast moving grass fire has destroyed several caravans and at least two homes near Mildura in Victoria.

Melbourne will get a short reprieve from the heat today, with a 21C expected, before it heats up again on Wednesday.

Sydney and Brisbane can expect the heat to climb to 29C today, as Adelaide reaches 27C.

Ransomware attacks have the power to make global headlines and cause losses in the millions.

But they can also operate on a much smaller scale — and be no less devastating.

That's certainly the case for Warwick Levy, owner-operator of online clothing brand Lonely Kids Club, who in late 2021 lost his Instagram account and an estimated $10,000 worth of revenue.

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Warwick was a savvy social media user. With around 20,000 followers, it was a key part of his business.

"It's very important, like the majority of our traffic is actually through Facebook, Instagram, so it's a really big part of the brand," he told me in episode five of the Anatomy of a Scam podcast.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CecX2CKvhVX/

But sales were only part of the picture for Warwick.

He was also passionate about using his social media accounts to create community.

"I use them to communicate with my audience, but it's a little different to a usual clothing brand in that I do a lot of content that's just sort of myself talking, or my face is featured a lot, and it's also a bit personal where I connect to the audience quite a lot," he said.

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https://omny.fm/shows/anatomy-of-a-scam/how-your-trusty-phone-can-deceive-you/embed?style=cover

Ironically, it was this care for his customers that baited the trap.

Warwick was engaged by a new online profile. He thought this was just another follower. For nine months, they went back and forth. And then they asked for help.

Claiming they had lost their phone, they needed a verification code, and asked if it could be sent to Warwick's. He obliged, unknowingly giving away the keys to his Instagram account — and with it, his business, his online identity, his entire livelihood.

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The hijackers said they would give him back his account, but he would have to give them something in return.

It's a textbook example of the ultimatum at the heart of any ransom attack, big or small, a type of scam which is an area of increasing focus for the Australian Federal Police's cybercrime division.

"It is a really damaging form of cybercrime where criminals can gain access to a network," Assistant Commissioner Chris Goldsmid, who runs Cybercrime Operations with the AFP, explains on the podcast.

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"And then encrypt files and deny access to that network for the business, which can obviously have critical impacts to the running of that business."

It begs one obvious but incredibly complex and heavy question: Do you pay the ransom?

It's a question with many points of view to consider. You can hear more, including the rest of Warwick's story in episode 5 of Anatomy of a Scam.

https://omny.fm/shows/anatomy-of-a-scam/playlists/podcast/embed?style=cover

Deborah Knight hosts Afternoons with Deborah Knight on 2GB.