The National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams Report (https://www.nasc.gov.au/reports-and-publications/targeting-scams/target…) shows that scam losses reported to key organisations fell by 25.9 per cent to AUD2, 000 million in 2024, showing the efforts by government, industry, law enforcement and community organisations are reducing the financial impact of scams on Australians. 

The population of Australia is slightly less than 28 million people. That makes the average loss roughly AUD71.50. But of course not everyone is a victim and not everyone reports. 

This report combines data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, IDCARE and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). 

According to the combined data, scam reports also fell by 17.8 per cent to 494,732 scam reports for 2024 compared to 601,803 in 2023.

 “While we are encouraged by the drop in reported financial losses, we acknowledge scammers are sophisticated and highly motivated criminals. We need to remain vigilant and pivot our defences to maintain this downward trajectory,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said. 

“Combining and actioning the intelligence we and partners receive through reports is a key element of this effort.” “Scams lead to more than just financial loss. We know that the impact on scam victims and families is all too often life changing, and scams have negative effects on relationships, mental health and well-being.” 

The top five scam types in the combined data were investment, romance, payment redirection, remote access and phishing scams, which jointly accounted for more than 70 per cent of the total combined losses. 

Investment scams resulted in the highest overall combined losses, with AUD945 million reported lost in 2024. However, the work of government and stakeholders including through initiatives such as the investment scam fusion cell (https://www.nasc.gov.au/reports-and-publications/fusion-cells/national-…) have led to a decrease of 27.3 per cent from the AUD1.3 billion reported lost to investment scams in 2023. 

It is difficult to see how this can be attributed to government efforts which are primarily awareness related and ex post facto enforcement which rarely results in 100% recovery of losses. 

“We continue to be concerned about the high individual losses and emotional impact of scams. Scammers often make contact on social media and groom their victims over long periods of time. We urge Australians to never take investment advice or give money to people they have only met online,” Lowe said. “We’re committed to providing ever better protection for Australians against increasingly sophisticated scams and are confident that our coordinated efforts across government, law enforcement and industry will continue to drive losses down.” 

In 2024, the National Anti-Scam Centre referred more than 8,000 URLs for takedown, including 6,000 to the National Anti-Scam Centre takedown service and over 2,000 investment related scams to ASIC. Of the over 6,000 URLs referred to the NASC takedown service, 92 per cent were successfully removed, avoiding an estimated AUD36 million in losses. The National Anti-Scam Centre also referred 10,355 suspected Facebook scam URLs to Meta for further investigation. 

The taking down of websites is a very effective tool and such action is to be applauded. The number is significant and all credit must go to the organisation for identifying them and taking action. It is no criticism to say that it is likely that many almost certainly simply reappeared under another name and that there were probably many that went unidentified. This is especially so as many of them are provided with shielding services by e.g. Cloudflare.  We hope they had more success in their reports to Meta which has completely ignored us when we have made such reports. 

Scamwatch trends 

 This report includes more detailed analysis about scams reported to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch service which received 249,448 reports in 2024, a 17.3 per cent decrease compared with 2023. 

Financial losses reported to Scamwatch decreased by 33.1 per cent with AUD318.8 million in 2024 compared to AUD476.8 million in 2023. “We encourage everyone to report scams they see to help keep all Australians safe. One of the best weapons we have is the intelligence gathered in reports from Australians,” Lowe said. Scamwatch data shows that the most reported contact method leading to financial loss was social media. There were 7,724 reports about social media scams leading to financial loss in 2024 with overall losses of AUD69.5 million. Phone scams had the highest overall losses per contact method with AUD107.2 million reported lost across 2,179 reports. 

Bank transfer continued to lead to the highest overall losses when it came to payment methods with overall losses of AUD141.7 million reported to Scamwatch. Scamwatch data shows that losses incurred by First Nations people increased by 73.1 per cent to AUD6.5 million in 2024. 

The National Anti-Scam Centre will focus efforts to reach First Nations communities in 2025. 

In terms of likelihood to experience a financial loss, people aged 35-44 reported the most Scamwatch reports with loss. Those aged 65 and over continue to report the highest losses of any aged group at AUD99.6 million in 2024, a 17.6 per cent drop since 2023. 

Reported scam losses for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities decreased by 36 per cent from 2023. Overall losses for reports by persons with disability decreased by 32.6 per cent compared to 2023, with losses of AUD20.8 million 

Reported losses for small business were 24 per cent lower than 2023 with $13.1 million in losses. 

 Background 

 The data in this report is for the calendar year 1 January to 31 December 2024. Reference to combined reports or combined losses include data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, AFCX, IDCARE and ASIC. These are the primary places that hold data relating to both scam losses and reports. Adjustments have been made to address duplication in reporting and to remove unreliable high loss reports from within those datasets. Data can change over time due to people withdrawing reports or quality assurance processes.

*How can WMLR report on a statement to be issued tomorrow? Simple: it is issued by email tomorrow AUS time which is still very much today UK time. So, a lesson in fraud: always check ALL the applicable times in any email. They are often a giveaway.