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Scamwatch is warning the Chinese community in Australia to be wary about two frightening scams targeting them that involve threats of arrest, and extortion via fake kidnappings.

See also in-language PDF:
针对华人社区的威胁和绑架骗局

Scams Awareness Week runs from 21–25 May 2018. Australians are urged to be on the lookout for threat-based impersonation scams by taking a moment to ‘Stop and check: is this for real?’.

Scammers swindled nearly $4.7 million from Australian businesses in 2017 according to the ACCC’s latest Targeting scams report – a 23 per cent increase compared to 2016.

Indigenous Australians who fell victim to scams in 2017 lost an average of nearly $6500 according to the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report.

Australians lost more money to scammers in 2017 than in any other year since the ACCC began reporting on scam activity.

The ACCC is warning consumers to beware of scammers impersonating energy and telecommunications providers and demanding payments.

We're warning the Chinese community in Australia to be wary of scammers posing as Chinese authorities and/or employees of DHL and threatening them with deportation or arrest unless they pay large sums of money.

Scamwatch is warning people to watch out for scammers setting up fake ads pretending to sell adorable puppies, with more than $310,000 lost and 584 reports about this scam in the past 12 months.

Recent media reports have been warning consumers about overseas missed call (or ‘Wangiri’) scams.

The ACCC is warning people to be careful about who they ‘friend’ online this Valentine’s Day with stats showing people are most likely to be preyed upon by dating and romance scammers on social media sites.