Hackers stole more than $3b from Aussies in 2022: ACCC

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is calling for a more united front to fight against hackers after revealing Aussies lost a record $3.1 billion to scams in 2022.

The ACCC released its latest Targeting Scams report on Monday, highlighting an 80 per cent increase in total losses from the year prior.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said losses could be even greater than the reported $3.1 billion.

“Australians lost more money to scams than ever before in 2022, but the true cost of scams is much more than a dollar figure, as they also cause emotional distress to victims, their families and businesses,” she said.

The report indicated that investment scams were the highest loss category ($1.5 billion), followed by remote access scams ($229 million), with payment redirection scams ($224 million) also proving significant.

Ms Lowe added that as hackers become more intelligent, a more unified effort is required to fight back.

“As scammers become increasingly sophisticated in their tactics, it is clear a coordinated response across government, law enforcement and the private sector is essential to combat scams more effectively,” Ms Lowe said.

“That’s why we continue to lend our expertise and support to prepare for the establishment of the Government’s National Anti-Scam Centre, with the ultimate aim of making Australia the hardest target for scammers.”

The Targeting Scams report combines data from ACCC’s Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE and other government agencies.

Last year, Scamwatch recorded 239,237 scam reports, marking a 16.5 per cent drop in the number in 2021. However, financial losses totalled more than $569 million — a 76 per cent increase compared to losses the year prior.

Per victim, losses rose by more than 50 per cent to an average of almost $20,000.

“Scammers evolve quickly and, unfortunately, many Australians are losing their life savings,” Ms Lowe said.

“We have seen alarming new tactics emerge which make scams incredibly difficult to detect.”

Ms Lowe said scams ranged from impersonating official phone numbers, email addresses and websites of legitimate organisations to scam texts that appear in the same conversation thread as genuine messages.

“There has been an explosion of reported losses to phishing scams in the past year, such as ‘Hi Mum’ and Toll/Linkt text scams, which skyrocketed by 469 per cent to $24.6 million in 2022,” Ms Lowe said.

Despite a greater effort from the government to curb the hackers’ efforts, Ms Lowe said there was more than needed to be done.

“Unfortunately, there are still significant gaps between and within the key sectors — banks, telcos and digital platforms — and between regulators that scammers exploit to steal money from customers,” she said

“So we would like to see initiatives that apply across the sectors, knowing that scammers will target the weakest link.”

The report also revealed that people experiencing vulnerability were disproportionally impacted by the scams.

“Our report shows that people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities were significantly over-represented in terms of financial losses across a range of scam types, accounting for more than one quarter (27.9 per cent) of total losses associated with identity theft and about a third (32.7 per cent) of all losses to pyramid schemes.”

Scamwatch data showed that small and micro businesses lost $13.7 million to scams in 2022 — a 95 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

The ACCC highlighted three simple tips for avoiding scams — stop, think and protect — urging individuals and businesses to take more caution upon receiving unfamiliar calls, messages, emails and varying links.