Australians reported 167,797 scams to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)-run Scamwatch in 2019.
Fraud increased by 34% on the previous year and the economic impact in 2019 for Australians was over $634 million.
The largest losses in 2019 by fraud type were: $132 million to business email compromise (BEC) scams, $126 million to investment scams, and $83 million lost to dating and romance scams.
In 2019, phishing was the most common method, with 25,168 reports. 513 of those reported resulted in financial damage, worth AUD 1.5 million.
Identity theft came in third place with 11,373 reports, and 562 of these resulted in losses totaling over AUD 4.3 million. There were 9,019 remote access scams, with 682 of these costing AUD 4.8 million. And finally, “hacking” as a type of scam was reported 8,321 times, with 509 of these scams resulting in losses totaling AUD 5.1 million.
In 2019, reported losses due to cryptocurrency fraud exceeded AUD 21.6 million from 1,810 reports.
“Cloud mining exploits became a common adaptation of this type of scam. Most were Ponzi schemes, with no actual cryptocurrency involved,” the report explained.
Scamwatch said an international cryptocurrency Ponzi scam – USI Tech – hit Australia last year. It received over 200 reports about USI Tech, with losses of $3.3 million, mostly via Bitcoin.
The top two payment methods for fraud in 2019 were bank transfers at AUD 70 million and Bitcoin at AUD 19 million.
The highest overall losses were from people aged 55-64, and the age group that reported experiencing the most fraud was those aged 65 and older, followed by those aged 25-34. Those aged 18-24 made up just 4% of total losses. People aged 55 to 64 lost nearly $30 million.
Men were more likely to be fooled by investment scams and women by romantic dates.
The telephone remains the main method of fraud, with 69,522 reports. This is followed by email with 40,277 reports, text message with 27,894 reports and “Internet” was the method with 11,776 reports.
$32.6 million was lost over the phone, and despite only being responsible for 7% of total fraud, theInternetwas the reason victims lost $31.6 million.
"Unfortunately, the financial losses from fraud are greatly underestimated," said ACCC chair Delia Rickard.
“Scammers have moved to unexpected platforms to target victims. For example, in 2019 we saw unsuspecting victims targeted for dating through gaming apps like Words With Friends.”
Text message scam losses rose 40% in 2019 to just under AUD$97,000, despite there being only 9% more reports. The report found that many of these were phishing scams impersonating banks or services such as myGov, Australia Post and JB Hi-Fi.
Frauds carried out through social media also increased in 2019.
In 2019, businesses reported 5,904 scams to Scamwatch, with losses exceeding AUD 5.3 million. False billing scams caused the highest losses, at AUD 2.7 million.
The most financially devastating BEC scams involved invoices between businesses, suppliers or individuals, which were intercepted and altered with fraudulent banking details. The report showed that businesses were most often targeted by fraudsters posing as senior executives, staff and suppliers.
The report showed that Australians have reported losses of $2.5 billion to scams between 2009 and 2019. In 2009, losses totaling $69.9 million were reported to Scamwatch
It is no surprise that advances in technology over the past decade have contributed to the proliferation of scams affecting Australians.
