AUSTRALIANS lost $340 million to scammers in 2017, up $40 million from a year earlier.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ninth annual scams report shows more than 200,000 scam reports were submitted to the ACCC, Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network and other federal and state-based government agencies.
Losses for the first time totalled more $300 million.
Investment scams losses cost $64 million, an increase of more than eight per cent. Dating and romance scams cost $42 million.
The average loss was $6500 though some people lost more than $1 million.
ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard described it as a worry trend.
“Some scams are becoming very sophisticated and hard to spot,” Ms Rickard said.
“Scammers use modern technology like social media to contact and deceive their victims. In the past few years, reports indicate scammers are using aggressive techniques both over the phone and online.”
Scams Awareness Week 2018 launched on Monday.
Scamwatch asks people to “Stop and check: is this for real?” when they’re contacted by scammers who are pretending to be from well-known government organisations or businesses.
Scamwatch received 33,000 reports of threat-based impersonation scams in 2017. More than $4.7 million was reported lost and more than 2800 people gave personal information to these scammers.
“These scams can be very frightening,” Ms Rickard said.
“For example, scammers will impersonate the Australian Taxation Office and threaten people with immediate arrest unless they pay an outstanding tax bill. They may pretend to be from Telstra to try to hack into your computer or from Centrelink promising extra payments in return for a fee.
“Scammers scare us or butter us up with promises of cash because they know it clouds our judgement. People get so worried about being arrested they don’t question if the person threatening them is genuine.”
“If you’re being threatened, take a deep breath, and ask yourself if the call makes sense.
“The ATO will never threaten you with immediate arrest, Telstra will never need to access your computer to fix a problem and Centrelink will never require a fee to pay money it owes you. Finally, none of these organisations will ask you to pay using iTunes gift cards.
“If something doesn’t feel right, hang up the phone or hit delete. If the person said they were, for example, from Telstra or the ATO, find the phone number for that organisation online or in the phone book, call them and let them know about the call you received. They’ll let you know if it’s genuine or a scam.”
