Australians lost over $634 million to scams in
2019, according to the latest figures in the
ACCC’s Targeting Scams report released
today.
There were more than 353,000 combined
reports to Scamwatch, other government
agencies and the big four banks last year.
“Unfortunately it is another year with
devastatingly high losses, and scammers are
constantly finding new ways to defraud
Australians,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia
Rickard said.
“This year we have included data from the big
four banks which gives a more complete
picture of how much people are losing to
scams.”
Business email compromise scams accounted
for the highest losses in 2019, with the
Australian business community, and some
individuals losing $132 million.
This was followed by investment scams at
$126 million, and dating and romance scams
at $83 million.
Over the last 10 years of Targeting Scams
reports, Scamwatch has received almost one
million reports of scams.
“When we combine Scamwatch reports with
partner data, we see that Australians have
reported losing $2.5 billion over that time,
which is astonishing,” Ms Rickard said.
“We know these numbers still vastly
understate losses as around one third of
people don’t report scam losses to anyone
and in the past far fewer scam reports to other
agencies have been captured.”
“Some of these scams can last for months, or
even years, and can leave victims financially
and emotionally devastated.”
Based solely on reports provided to the ACCC
in 2019, scams originating on social media
increased by 20 per cent and contacts via
mobile phone apps increased by 29 per cent.
“Over the last decade, scammers have taken
advantage of new technologies and current
scams are using social media apps and new
payment methods that didn’t exist in 2009,”
Ms Rickard said.
“In particular, a new trend with dating and
romance scams is scammers contacting the
victim on social media apps or games which
are not designed for dating, so it’s important to
be aware that scammers can target you
anywhere.”
Common techniques that scammers use to
manipulate their victims include making
exclusive offers that you don’t want to miss
out on, or asking for small commitments, such
as completing a survey, to make the victim
more likely to comply with larger schemes.
“You can always say no, hang up the phone or
delete an email, even if you’ve said yes
previously. You don’t owe the scammer
anything,” Ms Rickard said.
If you think have been the victim of a scam,
contact your bank as soon as possible and
contact the platform on which you were
scammed.
The ACCC continues to work with the private
sector to share intelligence about scam trends
impacting their services, to assist their own
disruption efforts.
The ACCC encourages people to
visit www.scamwatch.gov.au to report scams
and learn more about what to do if they are
targeted by scammers.
They can also follow @scamwatch_gov on
Twitter to keep up to date with advice for
avoiding the latest scams affecting the
community.
Background
The 2019 Targeting Scams report includes
data from Scamwatch, ACORN (ceased
operating 30 Jun 2019), ReportCyber
(commenced 1 Jul 2019), ACMA, ATO,
Services Australia, WA Scamnet,
Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac and
ANZ.
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