Australian businesses reported more than 5800 scams with losses exceeding $7.2 million in 2018, a 53 per cent increase compared to 2017, according to the ACCC’s Targeting scams report.
Gift cards are increasingly the payment method of choice for scammers. Scamwatch reports show more than $5 million was lost in 2018, a 38 per cent increase compared with 2017.
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.
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.
