Scams spree is getting worse

SCAM losses by Australians soared 30 per cent last year to more than $634 million and consumers should brace for bigger losses in 2020 as COVID-19 fraudsters step up attacks.

There has been an explosion of scams in 2020 that exploit the bushfire crisis and coronavirus pandemic, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest Targeting Scams report, released today.

Scammers are rapidly adapting strategies and technologies, the report says, and now use online games for romance scams or social media for cryptocurrency investment scams. It’s no longer easy to spot a scam through poor spelling in an unsolicited email.

ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said scammers had been cashing in on COVID-19 by impersonating government agencies and websites in including myGov, Services Australia and the Department of Health.

“They are doing perfect replicas … easy clues are long gone and most of them are almost impossible to pick,” she said.

The ACCC has seen a large spike in online shopping scams, and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost to puppy scams that prey on people’s loneliness by selling them pets that don’t exist.

“We have seen a 43 per cent increase in scams in the first five months of this year versus last year,” Ms Rickard said.

The Targeting Scams report tracks data from the ACCC’s scamwatch.gov.au, other government agencies and now the major banks for the first time, which was a factor behind the 30 per cent rise.

It says there were more than 353,000 reports of scams last year, with the biggest losses coming from business email compromise scams ($132 million), investment scams ($126 million) and dating and romance scams ($83 million).

“We know these numbers still vastly understate losses as around one third or people don’t report scam losses to anyone,” Ms Rickard said.

She said she believed dating and romance scams were “the worst of them because they destroy people financially and emotionally”.

These scams were previously limited to dating websites, but spread to social media platforms, and have infiltrated apps and online games such as Words With Friends.