Aussies lost $3.1 billion in scams in 2022: ACCC

Last year Australians lost $3.1 billion to scams, the largest amount of money lost to scams ever, according to a new ACCC report.

This loss was an 80 percent increase to the year prior when $2 billion was lost. 

The ACCC reported the highest scams were investment at $1.5 billion, followed by remote access scams, $229 million and payment redirection scams $224 million.

Catriona Lowe, deputy chair at the ACCC the true cost of scams is much more than a dollar figure as they also cause emotional distress to victims, their families and businesses.

She said, “As scammers become increasingly sophisticated in their tactics, it is clear a coordinated response across government, law enforcement and the private sector is essential to combat scams more effectively.”

The report compiled data reported to the ACCC’s Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE and other government agencies.

Lowe said the consumer watchdog will continue to lend its expertise and support for the establishment of the government’s National Anti-Scam Centre,

“The ultimate aim of making Australia the hardest target for scammers,” Lowe said.

Scamwatch received 239,237 scam reports last year, a 16.5 percent drop on the number of reports received in 2021.

However, financial losses reported to Scamwatch in 2022 totalled more than $569 million, a 76 percent increase compared to losses reported in the previous year.

Despite fewer reports to Scamwatch, losses experienced by each victim rose by more than 50 percent last year, to an average of almost $20,000.

This is due, in part, to scammers using new technology to lure and deceive victims.

The ACCC said it continues to advocate for a three-pronged approach to tackling scams.

“First, we need to stop scammers reaching consumers by disrupting phone calls, SMS, email, social media messaging or other ways in which scammers contact would-be victims,” Lowe said.

“Second, we need to make sure consumers are supported with up-to-date information so they have the best chance of spotting a scammer when contacted. Finally, we need effective measures in place to prevent funds being transferred to scammers.”

Lowe said scammers evolve quickly and unfortunately, many Australians are losing their life savings.

“We have seen alarming new tactics emerge which make scams incredibly difficult to detect,” she said.

“This includes everything from impersonating official phone numbers, email addresses and websites of legitimate organisations to scam texts that appear in the same conversation thread as genuine messages. This means now more than ever, anyone can fall victim to a scam.

“There has been an explosion of reported losses to phishing scams in the past year, such as ‘Hi Mum’ and Toll/Linkt text scams, which skyrocketed by 469 per cent to $24.6 million in 2022,” Lowe added.

Scamwatch data shows that small and micro businesses lost $13.7 million to scams in 2022, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year. The biggest contributor to these losses were payment redirection scams, also known as business email compromise.

More broadly, there was a 73 percent increase in scam losses across the Australian business community last year, totalling $23.2 million.

Millions of Australians became more vulnerable to scams in 2022, following a spate of large-scale, high-profile data breaches late last year.

Lowe said scammers are the most opportunistic of all criminals.

“Unfortunately, the more information a scammer has about you, the more convincing they can be,” she said.

“In the weeks after the data breaches, there were hundreds of reports to Scamwatch, including reports of scammers impersonating government departments and businesses to carry out identity theft and remote access scams.”

Lowe said while this brought about unprecedented collaboration across government, law enforcement and industry to share information and disrupt scams, there is still more work to be done.

“Unfortunately, there are still significant gaps between and within the key sectors – banks, telcos and digital platforms; and between regulators that scammers exploit to steal money from customers,” she said.

“We would like to see initiatives that apply across the sectors, knowing that scammers will target the weakest link.”