Australians lost a total of $701 million to investment scams during 2021, a jump of 135 per cent on the previous year.
According to the latest Targeting Scams report by the ACCC, investment scams caused the most financial loss last year followed by payment redirection scams ($227 million) and romance scams ($142 million).
The ACCC’s Scamwatch service received over 9,600 reports about investment scams in 2021, up by 42 per cent, with a 169 per cent rise in reported losses to $177 million.
“We have seen a marked decline in some of the older, low-end scams and an enormous increase in more sophisticated ‘white-collar’ fraud, such as cryptocurrency investment scams,” commented ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard.
Losses to cryptocurrency investment scams surged by 270 per cent during the year and accounted for much of the increase in overall losses to investment scams.
A total of 4,730 crypto investment scams were reported to Scamwatch with combined losses of $99 million.
“Cryptocurrency has been described as the wild west with many countries now seeking to regulate aspects of it,” noted Ms Rickard.
While acknowledging the recent consultation by the federal government on approaches for licencing digital currency exchanges and custody requirements for crypto-assets, Ms Rickard said that urgent work was required in order to combat crypto scams.
“I am hopeful that this and other regulatory measures will slow the growth of cryptocurrency scams…
