Ripped off: Scammers had $634m boom year in 2019

Australians literally gave away more than $634 million to scamming specialists in 2019, according to latest Targeting Scams data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Scamwatch.

More than 353,000 combined reports were made to Scamwatch other government agencies and the big four banks last year.

Business email scams accounted for the highest lossesl ast year with the Australian business community, and some individuals losing a total of $132 million.

Investment scams claimed a further $126m, and dating and romance scams were the third most prevalent form of theft, costing their victims $83m.

"Unfortunately it is another year with devastatingly high losses, and scammers are constantly finding new ways to defraud Australians," said ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard.

"This year's report included data from the big four banks which gives a more complete picture of how such people are losing to scams."

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During the past 10 years of Targeting Scams reports, Scamwatch has received almost one million notifications.

"When we combine Scamwatch reports with partner data, we see that Australians have reported losing $2.5 billion over that time, which is astonishing," Ms Rickard said.

"We know these numbers still vastly understate losses as around one third of people don't report scam losses to anyone and in the past far fewer scam reports to other agencies have been captured."

"Some of these scams can last for months, or even years, and can leave victims financially and emotionally devastated."

Fellow commissioner, Mick Keogh noted scammers frequently conned businesses by intercepting legitimate invoices, then changing the details to include fraudulent payment information.

"The recipient will pay the invoice as normal and not realise they have been scammed," he said.

"Another technique scammers use is to impersonate the CEO of a company and request staff transfer funds to them for a variety of reasons, such as to purchase gift cards as a surprise for other staff."

Scamwatch alone received almost 6000 reports from businesses last year with $5.3 million in reported losses.

False billing was the most commonly reported type of scam which includes business email compromise scams.

Other business scams included online shopping frauds where businesses attempted to buy equipment online and the product never arrives.

"It is important for businesses and their staff to know that these scams are out there so they can learn how to avoid them," Mr Keogh said.

Small and micro businesses reported more scams than medium and large-sized businesses.

The average loss was $11,000, but some businesses lost up to $200,000.

"Scammers are increasingly using email scams to target businesses of all sizes. It is important to have strong processes in place for verifying and paying accounts and businesses should ensure their systems have up-to-date anti-virus software," he said.

Based solely on reports provided to the ACCC in 2019, scams originating on social media increased 20 per cent and contacts via mobile phone apps increased by 29pc.

"In the last decade, scammers have taken advantage of new technologies and current scams are using social media apps and new payment methods that didn't exist in 2009," Ms Rickard said.

"In particular, a new trend with dating and romance scams is scammers contacting the victim on social media apps or games which are not designed for dating, so it's important to be aware that scammers can target you anywhere."

Common techniques scammers used to manipulate their victims included making exclusive offers that "you don't want to miss out on", or asking for small commitments, such as completing a survey, to make the victim more likely to comply with larger schemes.

"You can always say no, hang up the phone or delete an email, even if you've said yes previously. Ms Rickard said.

"You don't owe the scammer anything."

Anybody who feels they may have been the victim of a scam should contact their bank as soon as possible and contact the platform on which you were scammed.

The ACCC continued to work with the private sector to share intelligence about scam trends impacting their services, to assist their own disruption efforts.

The ACCC encourages people to visit www.scamwatch.gov.au to report scams and learn more about what to do if they are targeted by scammers.

Businesses and individuals can also follow @scamwatch_gov on Twitter and subscribe to Scamwatch radar alerts to keep up to date with advice for avoiding the latest scams affecting the community.