News & alerts

Scamwatch is warning people to be careful about being caught out by holiday season scams.

Tax scams seem to be everywhere at the moment and Scamwatch is warning people not to engage with phone calls or emails they receive threatening arrest or jail over unpaid tax debts.

Scamwatch is calling on businesses to urgently review how they verify and pay accounts and invoices as reports of business email compromise (BEC) scams to Scamwatch have grown by a third this year.

People are increasingly being caught out by celebrity endorsement scams, with reports to Scamwatch increasing 400 per cent and losses increasing a staggering 3,800 per cent so far in 2018.

Scammers are increasingly catching out people by impersonating well-known businesses or the police so they can get access to computers and steal money or banking information.

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

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

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.

Scamwatch is urging all Australians who lost money to a scammer through Western Union from 2004 to 2017 to take action by the extended deadline of 31 May to try to get it back.