Australians lost a record amount of more than $2 billion to scams in 2021, despite government, law enforcement, and the private sector disrupting more scam activity than ever before.

This is based on a report including more than 560,000 events and takes data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, and other government agencies in Australia.

The highest losses were from:

• Investment scams ($701 million)
• payment redirection scams ($227 million)
• romance scams ($142 million).

People aged 65 and over reported the highest losses, and reported losses steadily increased with age.

The ACCC is particularly wanting banks to match payee information in pay anyone transactions. This has been shown to have a real impact in countries that have done so, including the UK.

In 2021, the telecommunications sector’s new Reducing Scam Calls Industry Code resulted in more than 357 million scam calls being blocked.

People in Australia who detect a scam, whether or not they have lost money to it, can report scams and learn more about how to get help on the Scamwatch website at scamwatch.gov.au

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.