AFP says $83m saved since 2020 as part of the Operation Dolos
Australian Federal Police estimates it prevented about $83m being lost to scammers, with at least 100 live cybercrime investigations continuing.
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Australian Federal Police estimates it has stopped about $83m being lost to scammers since 2020, with at least 100 live cybercrime investigations continuing.
According to the latest figures released by the AFP, global criminal syndicates continue to target Australia’s economy and “way of life through sophisticated crimes using technology”.
About $83m has been saved since 2020 as part of the Operation Dolos joint task force, and AFP assistant commissioner Richard Chin said in a statement investigators have worked tirelessly this year to investigate organised cybercrime.
“The AFP will not stand by and watch Australians lose their life savings, identities and wellbeing to these criminal syndicates,’’ Assistant Commissioner Chin said.
“The AFP continued to work closely with our partners in 2024 to help protect Australians from cybercrime, both here in Australia and abroad,” he said.
“Criminal syndicates who use the internet as a tool for their cowardly offending against Australians are located all over the world.
“With over 100 active AFP investigations, the community can rest assure our teams will be relentless in 2025 to impact organised cybercrime syndicates wherever they are, including bringing offenders before the courts, either here or overseas.”
Yet as authorities crack down on cyber criminals, Australians continue to suffer significant losses at the hands of online scams.
According to the latest Targeting Scams report, Australians lost $2.74bn in 2023.
The report compiled data reported to Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE (Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The report revealed Australians made more than 601,000 scam reports to these organisations in 2023, amounting to an 18.5 per cent increase on the previous year.
It showed investment scams continued to cause the most harm, with victims losing $1.3bn. This was followed by remote access scams, where victims lost $256m and romance scams where victims lost $201.1m
Despite an overall decrease in losses, people over 65 were the only age group to experience an increase in reported losses which increased by 13.3 per cent in 2023 to $120m
Scammers predominantly used text messages to contact potential victims, with 109,621 reports – a 37.3 per cent increase from 2022. But, scam calls resulted in the highest reported losses at $116m.
Scams initiated via social media resulted in the second highest in reported losses, increasing by 16.5 per cent to $93.5m
The Australian has been reporting on the AFP’s crack down on cyber criminals and human trafficking targets in South-East Asia and Eastern Europe.
The masthead reported in May that tens of thousands of workers had been tricked into forced criminality in cyber slave factories operating across Southeast Asia.
In November, the AFP said they uncovered an “intelligence gold mine” when they raided a scam centre in Manila which may have targeted up to 5000 Australian men through online dating websites.
The so-called Operation Firestorm led to authorities accessing a scam centre compound for the first time.
And as a result of the October 3 bust, more than 250 suspected cyber criminals were arrested in Pasay City in central Manila, in The Philippines.
Mr Chin previously told The Australian authorities believed the centre was using scripts to target Australian men over 35 via online dating apps and social media.
The men were allegedly lured onto encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram and tricked into investing money in fake cryptocurrency trading schemes.
Originally published as AFP says $83m saved since 2020 as part of the Operation Dolos
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