Scams have caught increasing numbers of Australians, and could cost up to $4 billion by the end of the year.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch found scammers are “relentlessly targeting Australians”, amounting to losses of $424.8 million between January and September.
That’s a 90 per cent increase on the same period last year.
These numbers vastly understate actual losses, as only about 13 per cent of victims report to Scamwatch.
A growing disaster
The scams typically focus on asking people to click on links and provide personal and financial information – known as phishing.
Scammers often impersonate government departments and businesses to carry out identity theft and remote access scams.
The most straightforward scams are often the most convincing.
Earlier in the year, the ACCC was overwhelmed with complaints about the “Hi Mum” scam. The racket involves criminals impersonating a household member, saying they’ve broken their phone and can’t access their online banking, before asking the victim to transfer money into an account.
About $292 million has been lost to investment scams between January and September, followed by dating and romance scams ($29 million) and remote access scams ($18 million).
The top three reported scams were phishing (50,015 reports), false-billing (16,263 reports) and online shopping scams…
