How cybercrime is costing Australia $33b: Kathy Sundstrom explains

A Queensland farmer who lost almost $70,000 in a business email compromise is one of many Australians to fall victim to cybercrime, with estimates it costs Australia $33b.

There we were. Lost, on a gravel road, somewhere near Carnarvon Gorge with no phone reception and the last time we had seen a car was three hours earlier.

One of our cars had broken down and we had no hope of fixing it ourselves.

We walked to the nearest farm house and it was empty. The sun was starting to set and we were contemplating what to do when we heard the faint rumblings of a motorbike.

We flagged the farmer down, explained our plight and he took us to his house where, if you stood on the porch at just the right angle, you could pick up mobile phone reception.

As Dave (aka Dr David Lacey, my boss) was talking on the phone, we started chatting to the farmer.

We explained we were from IDCARE, a national support service for victims of identity theft and cyber crime.

And he said “I nearly lost $70,000” in a business email compromise.

Days earlier, we had been in a little shop in Alice Springs when, again, we explained where we were from.

The owner quickly recounted a story about a relative who had been scammed out of a large sum of money in a relationship scam.

There was the New Zealander living in Brisbane we met at Yulara, the township at Uluru, who had engaged in the “warrant for your arrest” telephone scam.

And there was the principal of a remote school who had his email account hacked.

It didn’t matter where we travelled across this vast and beautiful country in the last 10 days on a road trip from Alice Springs to home, everyone had a story to tell about how they had been impacted by scammers and cybercrime.

And the country is suffering for it.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Annual Cyber Threat report for 2020 – 2021 found self-reported losses from cybercrime in Australia totalled $33 billion that year. That could build around 20 new major hospitals as the Sunshine Coast University Hospital cost $1.8 billion to build by the time of its completion in 2017.

The report indicates one Australian every eight minutes was being impacted.

These are only the reported cases with the vast majority of people not bothering or too embarrassed to report cybercrime.

Demand for IDCARE’s services in 2021 has increased by 43%. It shows no signs of slowing down.

Governments, banks and organisations have committed strong budgets to tackle the issue and we are grateful for support, but by the time you’ve read this article, another Australian is likely to have lost money to a scammer based somewhere overseas.

This is, without a doubt, the crime of the century and no one is immune.

I spoke to an Indian woman, living in Berlin, who contacted IDCARE for help as she had been scammed out of her life savings by a person posing as an Australian migration agent.

She was almost in tears as she told of 40 other families she claimed had been scammed by this man.

Cybercrime is global, pervasive, sophisticated and co-ordinated.

And while the statistics paint the picture of the frightening financial toll, the real story is the ongoing worry about the risk of identity theft and the emotional and psychological burden of being deceived.

It’s like a cancer, once you’ve been diagnosed you live with the concern it could happen again.

Next week is Scam Awareness Week.

Turning the tide in this war has to begin with awareness, followed by education and conversation.

Watch this space.

Kathy Sundstrom is a former Sunshine Coast Daily journalist who now works at identity and cyber support service IDCARE.