News & alerts

Australians should be aware scammers are adapting existing technology to play on people’s fears around coronavirus and selling products claiming to prevent or cure the virus.

Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of the spread of coronavirus to exploit and play on the fears of consumers across Australia.

Scams reported to the ACCC involving identity theft or the loss of personal/banking information have cost Australians at least $16 million this year, and this figure is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Australians are losing more money to NBN scams, with reported losses in 2019 already higher than the total of last year’s losses.

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.

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

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.

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

This Stay Smart Online Week, the ACCC is warning the community to watch out for common online scams they might encounter.