Every year, Australians lose millions of dollars to the activities of scammers who bombard us with online, mail, door-to-door and telephone scams.
Scams target people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels. Fake lotteries, advance-fee frauds, get-rich-quick schemes and miracle health cures are some of the favoured means of separating the unwary from their money. New varieties of these scams appear all the time.
The ACCC has seen the devastating effects scams can have on people and their families. One of the best ways to combat this kind of fraud is to help you take action to prevent yourself being caught out in the first place.
Here is what you can do to stay one step ahead of the scammers.
Visit our SCAMwatch website
We have built a complete website to help you learn how to recognise, report and protect yourself from scams. SCAMwatch contains information on dozens of different scams targeting consumers and small businesses, including fake lotteries, advance-fee frauds, get-rich-quick schemes, dating and romance scams and miracle health cures.
Explore SCAMwatch for yourself or use one of these quick links to help you find the page that you are looking for:
Read our publication The little black book of scams
The little black book of scams is one of our most popular publications. You can download our brand new version which was released February 2008. See the key publications box on this page or you can call our Infocentre to request a free copy.
The little black book of scams highlights the latest scams targeting Australian consumers and small business and offers you tips on how to protect yourself from scams, what you can do to minimise damage if you do get scammed and how you can report a scam.
Here are some scam tips brought to you from The little black book of scams.
