Australia S Top Scam Statistics To Hustle In 2022

In 2020, Australians lost the battle with scammers that cost them $851 million. Needless to say, scamming is a severe problem in Australia.

If you want to learn some of the latest scam statistics, find out how much money is scammed in Australia each year, what age group gets scammed the most, and other scamming statistics, keep reading!

Top 10 Scamming Facts

Global scam statistics show that during the 2019-20 period, businesses lost around US$42 billion as a result of fraud.
In 2020, the average loss of Australians caused by online scams was $2,431.
Scam statistics show that since the beginning of 2022, Aussies have reportedly lost over $72 million to scams.
In 2021, Aussies lost $178 million in investment scams.
Of the total 286,607 scam reports in Australia in 2021, 71,299 were filed about phishing scams.
2021 identity theft statistics show that Australians have reported 22,354 cases of identity theft.
Online shopping scam statistics show that in 2021, Australians lost more than $8 million in online shopping scams.
From June 2020 to June 2021, $490 million was lost in credit card scams and fraudulent payment cards transactions
In 2021, online dating scams in Australia mostly happened on social networks
In 2021, fake charities in Australia generated $188,457 from scamming.

Global Scam Statistics

1.In 2021, the average cost of a data breach worldwide was US$4.24 million.

(Statista) (Endpoint Protector)

This is the highest average cost of a data breach in the last 17 years, up by 10% year-over-year. The healthcare sector has the highest average cost of a data breach (US$9.23 million), followed by the financial district (US$5.72 million) and the pharmaceutical industry (US$5.04 million).

Data breaches in 2021 mostly happened due to compromised credentials (20% of the total data breaches), phishing (17%), and cloud misconfiguration (15%). Business email compromising was the greatest contributor to financial damage, with losses of US$5 million.

2. In 2021, the United States had the highest number of internet fraud victims.

(Internet Crime Report) (Analytics Insight)

In 2021, 466,501 Americans were victims of internet crime, making them the first nation in the number of internet fraud victims. Other countries with a high number of fraud victims in 2021 were the United Kingdom (303,949), Canada (5,788), and India (3,131).

And what is the biggest scamming country? Nigeria is considered to be the leading scamming country in the world, followed by India and China.

3. In the first half of 2021, the median loss from online purchases stood at US$102.

(Statista)

The online shopping scam statistics show that the median loss from online purchases for the given period was US$6 higher than in the 2019-20 period. In total, the percentage of consumers who lost money after being targeted by online purchase scams grew by 4% in the last 5 years.

4. In 2020, customer fraud was the most widespread scamming method across various industries.

(PwC)

In 2020, surveyed businesses from different industries reported they experienced customer fraud. Customer fraud was most common in businesses offering financial services (27%), followed by consumer markets (18%), and businesses in the healthcare sector (13%).

5. 47% of the companies that participated in the 2020 PcW survey were victims of fraud.

(PcW)

The surveyed companies have reported an average of 6 cons in the period from 2018 to 2020.

6. During the 2019-20 period, businesses lost around US$42 billion as a result of fraud.

Global scam statistics show that 56% of businesses who have experienced a fraudulent incident in this period started an investigation, and 13% of the victimised companies reported losses of more than US$50 million. In Australia, cybercrime costs businesses approximately $29 billion a year.

7. In 2021, scammers stole $14 billion worth of crypto.

(CNBC)

Scammers took $14 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021, mostly because of decentralized finance platforms, despite the fact that blockchain technology enables secure online peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions.

Australian Scam Statistics

8. Scamming statistics show that in 2020, the number of reported scams in Australia grew by almost 29% year-over-year.

Scam and fraud statistics in Australia show that the number of reported scams constantly grew from 2015 to 2020, except in 2019, when the scams were 5.4% lower than in the previous years.

9. In 2020, the average loss of Australians caused by online scams was $2,431.

(9News)

In 2020, 17% of Australians were scammed during their online activities and lost $2,431 on average to online scams.

10. Since the beginning of 2022, Aussies have reportedly lost over $72 million to scams.

(ScamWatch) (ScamWatch) (ScamWatch)

Scam statistics show that since the beginning of this year, Aussies have lost $72,231,217 to scams. And how much money is scammed in Australia each year? 2021 holds the record with $323 million, while this number was almost two times lower in 2020, when Australians sacrificed $175 million to scams.

11. With 12,571 reports in the first two months of 2022, New South Wales counts the most scam victims in Australia so far.

(ScamWatch) (ScamWatch)

New South Wales also had the most scam victims in 2021, with a reported 92,117 scams and a loss of more than $110 million.

12. In 2021, Aussies lost more than $178 million in investment scams.

(ScamWatch) (ScamWatch)

Australians reported great losses as a result of investment scams in 2021. In fact, with more than $178 million lost in investment scams, Australians lost almost three times more money than in 2020, when this amount was almost $67 million.

13. Of the total 286,607 scam reports filed in Australia in 2021, 71,299 were filed about phishing scams.

(Scam Watch)

Other most-used scam methods in Australia were threats to life or arrest (32,425 reported cases), identity theft (22,354 reports), and false billing (21,545 reports).Considering the methods used by scammers, phone-delivered scams were most common, followed by social networking scams and scams on the internet and email.

14. In 2020, Australians lost over AU$26 million by using Bitcoin as a payment method in scams.

(Bitcoin)

You might be interested in: How to Stop Spam Calls in Australia

Australians lost $26.7 million to scammers through Bitcoin payments. The leading types of scams victims lost their money in were fake cryptocurrency investments and romance baiting.

Identity Theft Scams in Australia

15. In 2021, Australians made 124,491 reports for attempts of stealing personal information.

(ScamWatch)

3% of the reports from the attempts to gain your personal information in Australia have resulted in financial losses of the victims with a total of $33.9 million.

16. 2021 identity theft statistics show that Australians have reported 22,354 cases of identity theft.

(ScamWatch) (ScamWatch)Australians lost over $10 million to identity theft and 4.3% of the reports resulted in financial damage. This is more than $7 million more than Australian identity theft victims lost in 2020, when the total amount of money lost stood at $3,072,287.

17. In 2021, 64,126 reported attempts on gaining personal information happened over the phone.

An overview of the attempts to gain personal information shows that in 2021, Aussies lost $17 million over the phone, $5 million over the internet, and $4.5 million in in-person attempts.

18. In 2021, scammers in Australia mostly tried to obtain the personal information of people over 65.

22,122 reports were made in 2021 by people aged over 65 who were victims of attempts to gain personal information. The 35-44 age group follows next, with 18,217 attempts.

However, when it comes to money, Aussies aged 45-54 lost the most in 2021 – over $7 million.

19. In 2021, 48.5% of the reports for attempted identity theft were from Australian men.

Both men and women have reported almost the same number of reports for attempts on stealing their information – 49.6% of the reports came from females and 48.5% from men.

At the same time, men have the larger piece in the financial losses due to this type of scam (58.2%).

Shopping Scams

20. In 2021, Australians lost more than $8 million in online shopping scams.

(ScamWatch) (Statista)

Online shopping scam statistics indicate that Aussies lost $8,074,211 to online scams in 2021, which is close to $700,000 more compared to the previous year.

21. In 2021, the biggest losses from shopping scams came as a result of email shopping scams.

Australians have reportedly lost around $19.8 million in falling for scammers’ email shopping scams. However, when it comes to the number of reports of shopping frauds, most of them (over 19,000) came from people who were scammed via phone.

22. Of all age groups, 55 to 64-year-olds suffered the greatest financial damage due to purchasing scams.

This age group lost more than $6.2 million in shopping scamps, followed by Australians aged 35 to 44, who lost a little over $6 million.

23. In 2021, 22.7% of shopping scams in Australia resulted in financial loss.

The total amount lost in 2021 Australian buying and selling scams was more than $34.2. 22.7% of reported cases of shopping scams resulted in financial loss.

Credit Card Scams

24. From June 2020 to June 2021, $490 million was lost in credit card scams and fraudulent payment cards transactions.

(Auspaynet)

The fraud on payment cards transactions percentage in the fiscal year 2021 was higher by 9.2% compared to 2020. The largest credit card scam was the card-not-present which accounted for $442 million from Australians.

Dating and Romance Scams in Australia

25. The amount lost in dating and romance scams increased by 44% year-over-year in 2021.

(News) (ScamWatch)

Australians lost over $56 million in dating and romance scams in 2021, which is 44% more than the amount lost on these scams in 2020 (close to $39 million). A little over 40% of the reports of romance scams had financial loss outcomes.

Over 1,000 reports of dating and romance scams via social networks were recorded, followed by those that happened on mobile apps ( 830 reports) and while using the internet (571). Out of all of the states, New South Wales is ahead of the line when it comes to online dating scams.

27. In 2021, more Australian men than women reported dating and romance scams.

Of all the reported scams, a little over half (50.1%) were reported by men. Women in Australia took part with 47.8% in the reports for romance frauds. Considering the amount lost, females take the lead with 57% of the total money lost.

28. In 2021, the 45-54 age group reported the most romance scams.

This age group reported 651 cases of romance scams, followed by the 25-34 age group, which reported 608 cases of dating and romance scams. The 55-64 age group lost the most money in romance scams in 2021 – $13.5 million.

Fake Charities Scams in Australia

29. In 2021, fake charities in Australia generated $188,457 from scamming.

(ScamWatch) (Australian Charity and Not-for-profits Commission)

As per the recent findings, 12.1 of the scams made from fake charities gathered money. If you want to donate and don’t want to be a victim of a fake charity scam, you can check if the charity legally operates in Australia or if it’s on the list of scamming websites.

(ScamWatch)

Aside from social media scams, another successful method of getting money from Australians is in person, where fake charities got more than $46,000 in 2021. Using only email communications, this type of scam contributed to a financial loss of $42,896.

But how do they do it? Reports say that fake charities try to scam Australians mostly over the phone, social networks, and emails.

Employment Scams in Australia

31. In 2021, Australians lost $2.69 million to job and employment scams.

(ScamWatch) (Scamnet)

The 2021 employment scam statistics show Australians lost close to $2.7 million in job and employment scams. In total, there were 3,453 reports from Australian jobseekers, and 8.9% of the scams reported had a financial loss outcome.

On the list of scamming websites that have targeted job seekers are:

Richfield Travel
Higgins Trust Group
Sysmex
Hilton Metropolitan Hotels.

32. Out of 3,453 reports of employment scams in 2021, 60.6% were from Australian women.

The most recent fraud statistics in Australia show that scammers mostly managed to trick women through job and employment scams (60.6%) and that men were a smaller target (37.6% of them were scammed).

Bottom Line

Now you have all the information you need to protect yourself from being a number in the scam statistics in Australia. Think twice before you make a financial contribution to an unknown person or institution because scammers can affect every aspect of your life.

9News
Analytics Insight
Auspaynet
Bitcoin
Endpoint Protector
Internet Crime Report
News
Not-for-profits Commission
PwC
Scamnet
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
ScamWatch
Statista
Statista
Statista
Statista

Top 10 Scamming Facts#

Global Scam Statistics#

1.In 2021, the average cost of a data breach worldwide was US$4.24 million.#

2. In 2021, the United States had the highest number of internet fraud victims.#

3. In the first half of 2021, the median loss from online purchases stood at US$102.#

4. In 2020, customer fraud was the most widespread scamming method across various industries.#

5. 47% of the companies that participated in the 2020 PcW survey were victims of fraud.#

6. During the 2019-20 period, businesses lost around US$42 billion as a result of fraud.#

7. In 2021, scammers stole $14 billion worth of crypto.#

Australian Scam Statistics#

8. Scamming statistics show that in 2020, the number of reported scams in Australia grew by almost 29% year-over-year.#

9. In 2020, the average loss of Australians caused by online scams was $2,431.#

10. Since the beginning of 2022, Aussies have reportedly lost over $72 million to scams. #

11. With 12,571 reports in the first two months of 2022, New South Wales counts the most scam victims in Australia so far.#

12. In 2021, Aussies lost more than $178 million in investment scams.#

13. Of the total 286,607 scam reports filed in Australia in 2021, 71,299 were filed about phishing scams.#

14. In 2020, Australians lost over AU$26 million by using Bitcoin as a payment method in scams.#

Identity Theft Scams in Australia#

15. In 2021, Australians made 124,491 reports for attempts of stealing personal information.#

16. 2021 identity theft statistics show that Australians have reported 22,354 cases of identity theft. #

17. In 2021, 64,126 reported attempts on gaining personal information happened over the phone. #

18. In 2021, scammers in Australia mostly tried to obtain the personal information of people over 65.#

19. In 2021, 48.5% of the reports for attempted identity theft were from Australian men.#

Shopping Scams#

20. In 2021, Australians lost more than $8 million in online shopping scams.#

21. In 2021, the biggest losses from shopping scams came as a result of email shopping scams.#

22. Of all age groups, 55 to 64-year-olds suffered the greatest financial damage due to purchasing scams.#

23. In 2021, 22.7% of shopping scams in Australia resulted in financial loss.#

Credit Card Scams#

24. From June 2020 to June 2021, $490 million was lost in credit card scams and fraudulent payment cards transactions.#

Dating and Romance Scams in Australia#

25. The amount lost in dating and romance scams increased by 44% year-over-year in 2021.#

26. In 2021, online dating scams in Australia mostly happened on social networks. #

27. In 2021, more Australian men than women reported dating and romance scams.#

28. In 2021, the 45-54 age group reported the most romance scams.#

Fake Charities Scams in Australia#

29. In 2021, fake charities in Australia generated $188,457 from scamming.#

30. In 2021, fake charities in Australia managed to raise $59,846 over social media platforms. #

Employment Scams in Australia#

31. In 2021, Australians lost $2.69 million to job and employment scams.#

32. Out of 3,453 reports of employment scams in 2021, 60.6% were from Australian women.#

Bottom Line#