The ACCC is warning people to stay alert to ‘phishing’ scammers pretending to be from well-known businesses and government departments trying to con unsuspecting victims out of their personal information and money.
So far in 2017, the ACCC’s Scamwatch has received more than 11,000 reports of this scam, with nearly $260,000 lost.
The ACCC is warning migrants to watch out for scammers pretending to be from government agencies including the Department Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in a new scam targeting recent travellers.
Nearly 6000 businesses reported being targeted by scams in 2016 according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Targeting Scams report, with losses totalling around $3.8 million, an increase of almost 31 per cent.
The highest losses were to computer hacking, fake investment schemes and buying and selling scams, according to reports made to Scamwatch over the past year.
Scams targeting Indigenous peoples were at the highest level ever recorded according to the ACCC’s annual Targeting Scams report.
In 2016, the ACCC received 1499 reports about scam activity from Indigenous peoples, up 87 per cent on 2015. Losses from these scams totalled nearly $1.5 million.
The number of people reporting scam activity in Australia was at record levels in 2016 according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s annual Targeting Scams report, with a 47 per cent increase in scam reports to the ACCC compared to 2015.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is warning people to watch out for dodgy internet pop-up windows claiming there are viruses or other seemingly nasty tech problems affecting their computer.
Known as remote access scams, these pop-up windows are used as a ploy to get unsuspecting victims to call a fake support line – usually a 1800 number. The scammer will then ask for remote access to their victim’s computer to ‘find out what the problem is’.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is warning online shoppers to be wary of scammers masquerading as legitimate online retailers, often selling well-known brands at too-good-to-be-true prices.
Already in 2017, the ACCC’s Scamwatch service has received more than 1000 reports of online shopping scams worth more than $150,000 in total.
The ACCC is warning people to be wary of scammers when looking for romance online with social media now the most common method scammers use to contact potential victims.
In 2016, 4100 Australians contacted the ACCC’s Scamwatch service to report dating and romance scams and more than $25 million was lost: the largest amount of money lost to any type of scam. Stats also show Facebook is a popular contact method used by romance scammers, and that those aged 45 and over are most likely to be affected.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is warning online shoppers to watch out for fake parcel delivery scams arriving in email inboxes this Christmas.
The ACCC’s Scamwatch has received over 4,300 complaints about this scam in 2016, more than triple the number received in 2015.
The ACCC says 350 people reported providing their personal information to scammers, including bank account details.