Aussies lose $16m through social media scams

AUSTRALIANS are being warned to take extra care on social media after a new take on an old scam has robbed victims of thousands of dollars.

Fake job ads posted to platforms including Facebook, Gumtree and Nextdoor are being used to steal victims’ identities and order goods on their behalf, helping to push the total scammed from Aussies on social networks to more than $16 million this year alone.

Scammers are also targeting small groups to extract the most money out of victims, experts warn, including the Chinese community which paid more than $750,000 to extortion scammers in one month alone this year.

The warnings come on the first day of Stay Smart Online Week, which authorities are using to highlight increasingly sophisticated online threats in a bid to “reverse the threat of cybercrime”.

Figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch reveal Australians have lost more than $95 million to scammers so far this year, as criminals devised new ways to trick their victims.

Social media scams have already stolen more this year than the entire amount lost in 2018, and an ACCC spokeswoman said fake job scams on social networks had risen 36 per cent compared to last year.

Scammers were also increasingly targeting the Chinese community in Australia, the ACCC said, with some scams threatening their arrest or extradition to China unless they paid and even posed for fake kidnapping photos.

Sophos global solutions engineer Aaron Bugal said scammers were targeting smaller groups to make the most money for their efforts.