Australians lost over $2bn to scams in 2021

Australians lost well over $2 billion to scams in 2021, a new record, despite the increased efforts by government, law enforcement and the private sector to tackle the growing threat, according to the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report.

There were more than 560,000 reports to the ACCC’s own Scamwatch, as well as ReportCyber, major banks, money remitters and other government agencies during the year, the report found.

Reported losses totalled nearly $1.8 billion, but previous research has indicated that a third of victims do not report scams at all, bringing actual losses to well over $2 billion.

According to the report, investment scams were the highest loss category ($701 million), followed by payment redirection scams ($227 million) and romance scams ($142 million).

Tenable Staff Research Engineer Satnam Narang said these findings are predictable. “It’s no surprise to see investment scams, specifically those centred around cryptocurrencies, capture the lion’s share of scam activity to the tune of $701 million in 2021,” he said.

“Over the last few years, as cryptocurrency prices soared to new heights, a fear of missing out, coupled with no centralised authority to intervene in fraudulent transactions, has enabled scammers to easily take advantage of the uninitiated hoping to capture some of the monumental gains in the cryptocurrency space.”

The report meanwhile found that people aged 65 and over experienced the highest losses, and reported losses steadily increased with age.

The top contact methods for reports filed to Scamwatch were phone (50%), followed by text message (23%), email (14%), the internet (4%) and social media (4%).

“The increasing number of reports by people experiencing vulnerability is a very worrying trend. Everyone from government to banks and digital platforms needs to do more to address this,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“Scammers are the most opportunistic of all criminals: they pose as charities after a natural disaster, health departments during a pandemic, and love interests every day.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/kentoh