News & alerts

In May 2023, the government funded the ACCC to set up a new National Anti-Scam Centre. The centre will bring together experts from government and the private sector to tackle harmful scams.

Jobseekers are being urged to watch out for scammers, with new Scamwatch figures revealing Australians lost over $8.7 million to recruitment scams in 2022.

Scamwatch is urgently warning Australians to be on the lookout for increased scam activity following the recent Optus data breach and to take steps to protect themselves.

Scamwatch is warning Optus customers to be on the look out for scams and take steps to secure their personal information following a cyber-attack.

Scamwatch is urging the public to be wary of phone messages from a family member or friend claiming they need help, following a significant rise in “Hi Mum” scams in recent months.

Losses to imposter bond investment scams have nearly tripled in the first half of this year with consumers losing over $20 million to these sophisticated scams.

Australians lost over $205 million to scams between 1 January and 1 May, a 166 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, according to new data from Scamwatch.

Investment scams reported to Scamwatch have cost Australians over $70 million in the first half of this year, more than the total losses reported to Scamwatch for all of 2020, and projected losses are set to reach $140 million by the end of the year.

So far this year scammers have stolen more than $7.2 million from Australians by gaining access to home computers, an increase of 184 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Last year scammers stole close to $34 million collectively from people who identified as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), people with disability, and Indigenous Australians.