Scam plan bears fruit

Losses down but older Australians still worst affected

A surge in scams has been blunted by a new national strategy, but a report into combating financial crime warns the intervention has failed to stop a blowout in losses for older Australians.

A new report from the National Anti-Scams Centre finds a series of interventions by banks and telcos has clipped the runaway growth in financial scams, with losses falling 13 per cent from their 2022 peaks.

This saw national losses trimmed from $3.15bn in 2022 to $2.74bn, with the bulk of the reduction hammering home in the second half of the year as the National Anti-Scams Centre ramped up activity. But the report warns the real impact of scams is likely to be far larger than logged, noting almost 30 per cent of people who experienced a scam did not report it.

Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones (pictured) said the government would continue the fight on financial scams and fraud. “This report shows that our plan is working, but every dollar lost to a scam is a tragedy and we will continue to roll out our anti-scam program,” he said.

“We want Australia to be a world leader in combating scammers and our mandatory codes will put us well ahead.”

Mr Jones said while there were early signs the national scams strategy was working, losses were still “far too high”.

“We urge Australians to remain alert to the threat of scammers and report any suspicious activity,” he said.

The National Anti-Scams Centre data finds almost all types of scam saw their losses slump in 2023. However, remote access scams, which sees criminals take control of computers or devices through virtual access, saw an increase in losses climbing to $256m from $229m in 2022.

The report also warns older Australians are still increasingly the victims of financial fraud, with “almost no change in reported losses” at a time when overall losses were falling. People over 65 were the worst affected Australians, losing a combined $121m in 2023, with losses continuing to grow rather than retreat.

The report notes almost half of all money scammed from

Australians was being processed through cryptocurrency exchanges in the 2022-23 financial year.

However, moves by Australia’s big banks to restrict flows to “high risk” cryptocurrency platforms is expected to stop losses leaving the country.

Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh said there were positive signs after the banks’ response.

“Banks are now regularly stopping payments to crypto exchanges used to siphon money out of Australia as well as detecting and blocking transfers to dodgy bank accounts,” she said.