Teamwork pays off as scam losses fall to $2.74 billion

Losses to scams have dipped by 13 percent to $2.74 billion despite an upsurge in reports during 2023. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission counted 601,000 scam reports last year compared to 507,000 in 2022, an 18.5 percent decrease. 

The figures, from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange and ASIC, defy expectations that losses would hit “significantly more” than the $3.15 billion reported in 2022. 

The ACCC called the fall in losses “encouraging” and claimed they came as a result of a “concerted effort” between the government, private sector, authorities and the public.

Of note, according to the ACCC, is the government's $58 million National Anti-Scam Centre, which reports scams and coordinates intelligence between law enforcement, banks and others.

This, the ACCC said, is “leading to timely intervention when scammers try to contact potential victims, or when victims unknowingly attempt to make payments to scammers”. 

Investment scams take the lion’s share 

Investment scams continued to be the source of the highest reported losses, standing at $292 million in 2023.

These scams saw a seven percent decline from 2022’s $316.5 million and are now a target of the National Anti-Scam Centre’s ‘fusion cell'.

This, according to the ACCC, resulted in the removal of 3500 websites by ASIC and the launch of an “alert list” to warn potential investors of dubious businesses and websites. 

AFCX data from the end of the 2022–23 financial year revealed that nearly half of all scam losses were processed through cryptocurrency exchanges. 

As a result of this, Westpac, CBA, NAB and ANZ “have taken steps to limit transactions to ‘high risk’ cryptocurrency exchanges”. 

Meanwhile, remote access scams generated the second-highest amounts of losses at $256 million, a fall by over a quarter year-on-year.  

The National Anti-Scam Centre said it now developing technology to coordinate intelligence and distribute information to “those who can act on it”. 

This includes banks to freeze accounts, telcos to block calls or SMSs and digital platforms to take down websites or accounts.  

“It is encouraging to see signs that our coordinated scam prevention, detection and disruption initiatives can stem the flow of funds to criminals and protect consumers,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.

“We are optimistic that our combined efforts will continue to reduce scam losses. We will continue this important work because losses remain too high and behind the numbers are real people who have lost money, often every last cent, to scams.”