Scammed: $41 million a month down Aussie toilets

Men lose twice as much money to investment scams as women. And the full cost of the con is staggering. How you can avoid being taken for a ride.

Australians lost a record amount of more than $2 billion to scams in 2021, despite government, law enforcement, and the private sector disrupting more dodgy activity than ever before, a report reveals.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) report, ‘Targeting Scams’, shows scammers pocketed an average of $41 million per month in the first six months of 2022.

A new scam awareness campaign has been launched by Crimestoppers, the ACCC and the Australian Taxation Office.

The campaign warns people to ‘Say bye bye or kiss your cash goodbye’, and to ‘think before you click’.

Crimestoppers chief executive officer Peter Price.

Crime Stoppers NSW chief executive officer Peter Price said scammers use a sense of urgency to force people into action before they have thought it through.

“This kind of tactic should be a red flag,” Mr Price said, “the longer someone is on the phone with the scammer, the more information they extract.”

He advises people to say goodbye and hang up.

“Hanging up may be the difference between being scammed or keeping your cash,” Mr Price said.

Text message scams like the ‘Hi Mum’ con are purely after personal information, passwords and credit card details.

“If a text message does not look legitimate then delete it,” Mr Price said.

Telecommunication providers are on notice to pull up their socks to stymie scams.

Over 660 million scam calls have been blocked since the new rules requiring telcos to detect, trace and block scam calls was introduced in December 2020.

Australian Taxation Office assistant commissioner Tim Loh.

New Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) data shows telcos blocked 110 million scam calls in April to June this year.

Australian Taxation Office assistant commissioner Tim Loh said sms links luring people into a quick tax refund are another deception.

“These links trick unsuspecting Australians into visiting fake websites aimed at stealing their personal information,” Mr Loh said.

It’s then open season on your cash for scammers who deceive you into handing over personal information.

If you think something might be legitimate, double check it by calling the organisation or government agency back using details you find in an independent search, rather than the details provided by the caller.

ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard told the Northern Star 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,” Ms Rickard said.

– From reports to authorities, women reported the most scams while men lost the most money

– men’s losses to investment scams were double those of women

– over 65s reported the highest losses

– reported losses steadily increased with age

– financially and emotionally vulnerable people reported record levels of losses; and

– people with disability made twice as many reports with a 102 per cent increase to $19.6 million

The clichéd adage is one to bear in mind - if something is too good to be true, then it probably is.