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.

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

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

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.