We were so excited yesterday by the discovery that it’s Australian Bacon Week that we forgot to notice that it’s also National Consumer Fraud Week. The ACCC has released some stats to coincide with Fraud Week which shows that consumers are starting to wise up to the scammers.
In 2010, the ACCC received about 42,000 reports related to fraudulent scams, compared to just 20,000 in 2009. The amount of money lost to scams was also down slightly to $63 million, with only 16% of people reporting scams losing money.
Reports for online scams grew from 14,000 to 19,000, and telephone scam reports skyrocketed from just 2,000 in 2009 to more than 14,000 in 2010.
While the increased reporting of scams to the ACCC is encouraging, it’s still worth remembering that we need to be vigilant against the spams and scams that are coming through the portal. If you want to report a scam or you’ve been sucked in, the ACCC has a dedicated website, Scamwatch, plus a twitter feed you should follow.
Also:
[ACCC]
Andrew Mills
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 10:46 AMI work for a particular government agency and I myself have spoke with dozens of people of late in regards to scam emails. Good to see people of all sorts of walks of life wisening up to, what a lot of the time, are really terrible scams.
Sunshine Coast
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 11:02 AMDon’t worry, stupidity is alive and well on the Sunshine Coast.
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/03/08/scammed-become-scammers-suzanne-malcolm-maiden/
olearymo
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 11:04 AMJust the other day I walked past a portal, and BAM! I was hit by not only a spam, but also a scam.
It was so frightening.
Ben White
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 11:57 AMThis comment has made my day.
olearymo
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 5:30 PMI only live to make smiles.
Natahnee (Fair Trading)
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 9:48 AMYou should check out the NSW Fair Trading Scam Buster App for smart phones and tablets. You can find out about current scams targeting Australians and get expert tips on how to bust the scams. It also has the option to report a scam. Best of all, its free! Visit the Fair Trading webiste for more info. http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/Online_services/Mobile_apps/Scam_Buster.html