Australians lost over $70 million to online fraud in 2009, with that figure just the tip of the iceberg reports the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
“Scams continue to make up a large proportion of total complaints that the ACCC receives and more than 20,000 scam reports were made to the ACCC in 2009 – a 16 per cent increase compared with 2008,” Mr Kell said.
“Realistically, this figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg – given people can be embarrassed about reporting that they have fallen victim to scams and lost money in the process.”
In fact, the real figure is probably closer to $1 billion, if estimates by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on annual fraud losses in the report is true.
The ACCC has seen very significant increases in reporting of certain types of scams. “The ACCC recorded an increase of over 100 per cent in reports about online shopping scams during 2009, compared to 2008,” Mr Kell said.
Last year also saw large increases in the reporting of false billing scams and banking and online scams – up nearly 60 and 40 per cent respectively in 2009.
“More than 54 per cent of the scam reports received by the ACCC concerned mass marketed advance fee fraud, making this the most complained about scam category in 2009,” Mr Kell said.
This scam category includes advance fee / up-front payment (Nigerian style, also known as 419 scams), dating and romance, lottery and sweepstakes, and unexpected prize scams.
The report notes that the dominance of online scams. “Nearly 70 per cent of consumers that contacted the ACCC about scams during 2009 said they were
contacted by scammers via the internet,” Mr Kell said.
