📰 Australia Slashes Scam Losses by 26%: National Anti-Scam Centre Reports $2B Drop in 2024
The National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams Report found scam losses reported to key organisations fell by 25.9 per cent to $2 billion in 2024, showing the efforts by government, industry, law enforcement and community organisations are reducing the financial impact of scams on Australians.
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 $945 million reported lost in 2024.
However, the work of government and stakeholders including through initiatives such as the investment scam fusion cell have led to a decrease of 27.3 per cent from the $1.3 billion reported lost to investment scams in 2023.
“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,” Ms 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 $36 million in losses. The National Anti-Scam Centre also referred 10,355 suspected Facebook scam URLs to Meta for further investigation.
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 $318.8 million in 2024 compared to $476.8 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,” Ms 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 $69.5 million.
Phone scams had the highest overall losses for contact method with $107.2 million reported lost across 2,179 reporters.
Bank transfer continued to lead to the highest overall losses when it came to payment methods with overall losses of $141.7 million reported to Scamwatch.
Scamwatch data shows that losses incurred by First Nations people increased by 73.1 per cent to $6.5 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 $99.6 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 reporters with disability decreased by 32.6 per cent compared to 2023, with losses of $20.8 million
Reported losses for small business were 24 per cent lower than 2023 with $13.1 million in losses.
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