An increasing number of Australians have fallen victim to investment scams and fraudulent schemes. However, according to the new report, scammers prefer bank transfers to cryptocurrencies.
Australians lose $ 670 million to scammers in 2020
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in its annual report that Australian residents lost AU $ 851 million in over 444.000 reported scam cases in 2020.
The assessment gathers information from the Scamwatch website, the Australian cyber security center Reportcyber, other government agencies and a dozen banks and financial intermediaries. Delia Rickard, vice president of the ACCC, said:
"Last year the victims of scams reported the biggest losses we have seen, but worse, we expect the real losses to be even higher, as many people do not report these scams."
In 2020, the agency saw an increase in financial losses due to investment fraud, with the total amount reaching a record $ 328 million. Scamwatch reports jumped 63% to 7.295 in total, with losses totaling A $ 66 million. Nearly 34% of those who reported investment fraud lost money. The average loss was A $ 26.713.
Scammers continued to use bank wire transfers as their prevailing payment method, with over A $ 97 million stolen through wire transfers, a 40% increase over the previous year. Buying Bitcoins it was the second most used payment method, with losses of 26,5 million. If you also include the “Other Payments” category, which includes cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and apps like Zelle or Skrill, the total is AU $ 50 million.
Romance seems to be effective among scammers
In the midst of the Covid problem, health and medical scams grew more than 20 times last year compared to 2019, with losses of around A $ 3,9 million. However, in 2020, Scamwatch discovered a new type of fraud known as "romantic baiting", which is often related to cryptocurrency payments. The authors are focusing on social and older age groups who have not previously suffered significant losses.
According to the ACCCC, victims are often approached on a dating app, redirected elsewhere, and persuaded into an investment fraud using bitcoin. Last year, young Australians between the ages of 25 and 34 lost most of their money to this type of fraud - AU $ 7,3 million. Citizens reported 414 similar frauds in all, with losses totaling AU $ 15,4 million.
In 2020, WhatsApp was added as an option in the reporting form. The ACCC received 347 reports by selecting WhatsApp from the drop-down menu. Scam reports listing the contact method as a social network / online forum and identifying the platform as a Tinder dating app went from 73 in 2019 to 174 in 2020.
