Australians lost AU$323.7 million to scams in 2021, representing an 84% year-on-year increase.
Australians lost a record AU$323.7 million to all types of scams in 2021 according to figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch.
This represents a significant increase of 84% compared to 2020 when Australians lost AU$175.6 million. There were 286,608 reports made to Scamwatch in 2021, up from 216,086 the previous year.
December recorded the greatest monthly losses with AU$43.2 million, while August had the highest number of scams reported with 40,874. New South Wales residents lost the most to scams across the year, reporting AU$110 million in losses, followed by Victorians with AU$74 million, which also reported the most scams with 92,117 and Victorians with 74,597 respectively.
Crispin Kerr, ANZ Vice President at cybersecurity company Proofpoint, said: “The data from the ACCC’s Scamwatch paints an unfortunate picture of just how effective scammers were at taking advantage of Australians over the last 12 months.
“The 84% increase in losses to scams in 2021 is significant and is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the true impact on Australians. Based on the numbers for December, during the holiday season, people can become desensitized to receiving numerous advertising links for shopping deals and the like and may not think twice about opening a dangerous file or clicking a suspicious link.
“The data shows scammers were extremely active in 2021 and we anticipate this will only increase as scammers continue to evolve and update their tactics. Malicious actors will always follow the money and we’ve seen that during the past year, SMS attacks have grown exponentially, because those actors discovered a trusting and captive audience ready to engage on the other end of the phone. It is critical for consumers to remain vigilant.”
Top scams
Across 2021 investment scams were consistently the most financially damaging type of scam, costing Australians a record AU$177 million from 9,663 reports. The amount lost in 2021 was more than double the previous year, while the number of reports increased by 32% YoY.
Losses to investment scams also accounted for more than half of all money lost to scams in 2021. Australians aged over 65 were the most impacted, losing AU$52 million, while those aged 35 to 44 recorded the highest number of reports at 1,901.
Dating and romance scams were the second highest in terms of financial loss, with AU$56 million, up 56% YoY. They were also one of the costliest scams, with 40% of all reports across the year resulting in money lost. Social networking sites were the biggest single source of money loss for these scams, recording AU$22 million. New South Wales residents reported the greatest losses to dating and romance scams, at AU$15.9 million, and the largest number of reports with just over 1,000 across the year.
Phishing scams attempting to gain personal information received the highest number of reports in 2021, making up one quarter of all scams reported to the ACCC. Reports of phishing scams also significantly increased YoY by 61%. Money lost to phishing scams came primarily from phone calls, with this delivery method accounting for over half of all money lost. Queenslanders lost the most to phishing scams across Australia, reporting AU$1.6 million.
Scams relating to threats to life or arrest disproportionately impacted younger Australians, with those aged 18 to 24 accounting for the highest losses at AU$3.3 million, and 25-to-34-year old’s the greatest number of reports with 5,528. Victorians suffered the highest losses from these scams at AU$4.8 million.
Other notable scams included losses to job and employment scams, which more than doubled in 2021 to AU$2.6 million, while losses to identity theft scams increased threefold to AU$10 million. Reports of malware and ransomware scams decreased by 6% but losses increased exponentially by more than 10-fold to AU$1.5 million. Reports of hacking scams increased by three quarters during the year, and remote access scams by 85% YoY.
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