Australians to Lose $4 Billion to Scams in 2022: Aussie Minister

Illustration picture shows a mobile phone and laptop with the Google website, on Dec. 14, 2020. (Laurie Dieffembacq/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

The Australian government has warned that scammers could rob Australians of $4 billion (US$2.57 billion) in 2022, which is nearly twice the amount of losses reported in the previous year.

On Nov. 7, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones announced that the Labor government would establish a new anti-scam centre inside the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) to fulfil its election promise.

In addition, The minister said the government would introduce new industry codes as well as changes to outdated privacy laws.

He also acknowledged the impacts of scams on people’s daily lives and said more would be done to tackle the issue.

“We anticipate that it'll hit four billion dollars this year, at a time when Australians are already struggling with cost of living increases. This is going to hit them out of the park,” Jones told Nine Network on the first day of Australia’s Scams Awareness Week.

“When you look at those numbers moving from $2 billion to $4 billion, we can’t afford to have another year where there is no action on this.”

Increases in Financial Losses Reported to Government Agency

According to Scamwatch, an anti-scam website run by the ACCC, it received over 166,000 scam reports between January and September 2022, with the total amount of financial losses increasing by 90 percent to $424.8 million compared to the same period last year.

However, it noted that the real number was much higher, as only 13 percent of the victims reported to the website.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones at a press conference in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 31, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said her agency’s research showed that 96 percent of the Australian population was exposed to a scam in the five years to 2021, while half of those surveyed were targeted weekly or daily by scammers.

“Scammers evolve quickly, and their tactics are becoming increasingly sophisticated and unscrupulous,” she said in a statement.

“While there is a great deal of work underway to disrupt scammers, our best defence against these types of scams is education.”

During the Scams Awareness Week, the ACCC encourages Australians to learn about and watch out for common scam clues as well as reach out for help when needed.

More Australians Fall Victim to SMS and Phone Scams

Meanwhile, a study by the comparison website Finder showed that an increasing number of Australians were falling victim to fake text and phone calls.

The website surveyed 1,058 respondents and found that three in four had received a fraudulent text message or phone call in 2022. However, only 21 percent of them reported the scam.

Sarah Megginson, a money expert at Finder, advised Australians to ignore contact from unknown numbers.

“Let the caller go to voicemail. If they leave a number, you can check if it matches a real business online,” she said in a statement.

“Don’t ever reply to or click on links in text messages. These could link to viruses and other nasties, or fake sites looking to steal your personal data.”

She also noted that people should read text messages carefully as one indicator of a fraudulent SMS was bad spelling or grammar.