The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has warned musicians and music lovers not to believe scammers who are offering an “opportunity” to work with ARIA by “rating” or “optimising” songs in exchange for payment and rewards.

The recipient is asked to provide personal information and to transfer payments via cryptocurrency.

To make it seem legitimate, they have been using the ARIA logo and branding in their messages and forms.

The scammers, who are based outside Australia, are contacting people via email, SMS and WhatsApp with fake offers of employment from ARIA. Government agencies have been contacted.

In happier news, the 2024 ARIA Awards are set to return to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Wednesday, 20 November. The 38th ARIA Awards will showcase and celebrate the very best of Australian music over the past year.

Last year, the ARIA Awards saw incredible homegrown talent claim Australian music’s most sought-after accolades, with highlights including Troye Sivan scooping up four statues, Genesis Owusu winning Album of the Year, G Flip and Forest Claudette both claiming two wins, Kylie Minogue winning Best Pop Release and Jet entering the ARIA Hall of Fame. This year will be extra special, as the Hordern Pavilion is celebrating its 100th birthday.

ARIA has a current campaign to encourage advertisers to support Australian musicians by playing Aussie music in their ads. Our Soundtrack Our Ads is an extension of the existing Our Soundtrack Our Stories, an initiative calling upon the Australian creative and advertising industry to pledge their support of homegrown music by elevating its work with local voices, sounds and stories, encouraging creatives to invest music budgets into homegrown artists.