Rising scam threat for seniors
The latest Targeting Scams report has revealed older Australians suffered the greatest harm at the hands of scammers and scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Here’s what you need to know.
By Nadia Howland
The Targeting Scams report shows people over the age of 65 were the only age group to experience an increase in reported losses. Losses for people over the age of 65 increased by 13.3% in 2023 to $120 million.
The report compiles data reported to Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE, and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
It has revealed that while there’s been an overall 13.1% decline in reported scam losses to $2.74 billion in 2023, the number of reported scams has actually increased by 18.5%. Australians made over 601,000 scam reports to these organisations in 2023. In terms of financial losses, investment scams continued to cause the most harm ($1.3 billion), followed by remote access scams ($256 million) and romance scams ($201.1 million).
With scam activity on the rise globally in recent years, the report highlights the impact of targeted and coordinated disruption activities across government, industry, law enforcement, and community organisations, leading to lower overall financial losses.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe says, “[We] remain committed to ensuring there are no weak links for scammers to exploit. A Scams Code Framework with strong, mandatory, and enforceable obligations on banks, telcos, and digital platforms will be central to this.”
Scam trends
The Targeting Scams report shows some concerning emerging scam trends, despite the overall decrease in losses reported. There were increases in reports of financial losses to phishing scams, payment redirection scams, and job scams.
The National Anti-Scam Centre is working to integrate data from many sources to provide more details on trends. The trends below are based on Scamwatch data only and should not be extrapolated to the combined data:
- Older people suffered the greatest harm at the hands of scammers. People over the age of 65 were the only age group to experience an increase in reported losses. Losses for people over the age of 65 increased by 13.3% in 2023 to $120 million. All other age groups reported a decrease in losses. People over the age of 65 were disproportionally impacted by investment scams. Many reported significant losses to scams resulting from contact initiated on social media.
- Text messages were the most reported contact method with 109,621 reports (37.3% increase from 2022). However, scam calls resulted in the highest reported losses at $116 million. Scams in which contact occurred via social media resulted in the second highest in reported losses, increasing by 16.5% to $93.5 million.
- Losses to job scams rose by 151.2% to just over $24.3 million. People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities were disproportionally impacted by job scams as were people looking for part-time work or seeking to supplement their income and ease cost-of-living pressures.
I reached out to Callun Blurton from Financial Dispute Legal, a lawyer specialising in financial services litigation, who has helped a number of clients who have lost money through scams or dodgy financial advice. In fact, he recently helped one of our readers recoup money from her bank after she fell victim to a scam, which we detailed in a recent Our Generation article (Spring 2023, Seeking justice over scam debacle, page 10) and another reader successfully resolve a dispute with a timeshare provider.
Callun says scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with 50% of scams now involving cryptocurrency platforms such as Binance. Three of the ‘big 4’ banks have now banned Binance transactions and ANZ has delayed crypto payments to give them time to investigate their legitimacy.
While many scam victims believe there’s nothing that can be done once their money’s gone, this may not be the case.
“A lot has changed over the past 12 months around what the banks are doing,” Callun explains.
“This is a fast developing area of law and I think that a lot is going to change over the next 12 months. We're working on a few things to help people through some court cases. There haven’t actually been any cases in the court to decide these issues in Australia to date, so it’s a new area of law we’re trying to help people with. And if we're successful, it may open up a lot of options for people who might have given up hope.”
Callun says the biggest losses seem to be resulting from investment scams and scams where the scammers are installing software on the victim’s computer to access their bank account.
“I’ve read statistics that around about 50% of scams involved a cryptocurrency platform, where very large amounts of money were being taken out of a bank account in Australia and deposited straight into a cryptocurrency account. And once the money hits that cryptocurrency account, it disappears and you can't really trace it,” he says.
“Three of the ‘big 4’ banks have banned Binance transactions, and ANZ has placed a delay on payments to give them time to investigate the legitimacy of such transactions. So, what the banks are doing is creating ‘friction points’, which have really helped constrain these types of scams. But again, the scammers are adapting their methods either by using smaller banks that may still allow cryptocurrency transactions, or they might put it on to a legitimate investment platform.”
Callun says there are also a number of scams involving blackmail.
“This is where an individual will get a call from what appears to be a legitimate entity—something like ASIC or a bank saying a transaction has come up showing the individual is involved in child exploitation. And this then develops into a blackmail scam where if you don’t pay a certain amount of money for bail or court proceedings, then criminal charges will be filed.
“I’m also seeing a lot of scams involving text and email links. These are quite common and have been around for a while. The scammers are getting very good at mirroring legitimate sources such as banks. Because the source looks legitimate, the person will click the link, which leads to a fake website where they will enter their email and password. Once the scammers have that information, they can access the actual account.
“Another scam that is really insidious involves people receiving invoices from actual vendors they were dealing with, such as a tradesperson. Somehow scammers have been able to intercept the email and change the bank account details in the email or invoice, leading to the payment being made to them rather than the actual vendor. This is why it’s really vital to ring anyone you receive an invoice from and confirm their bank details before making payment.”
Callun says the increasingly sophisticated and stealthy actions of scammers means we have to maintain a constant level of scepticism and vigilance when it comes to any kind of financial transaction or payment being requested.
“Assume everything is a scam, then investigate from there,” Callun advises.
“If you receive a text or email, do your own independent verification of the source, even if it means verifying multiple times. If you get something that looks suspicious, ring your bank and ask them whether they think it could be scam. Anything that comes out of the blue is worth questioning.”
Top tips to avoid scams
STOP – Don’t rush to act. Scammers will create a sense of urgency. Time is your biggest weapon here. Check with your bank before making any kind of payment. Do not be coerced or swayed by threats or blackmail.
THINK – Ask yourself if you really know who you are communicating with. Scammers can impersonate others and lie about who they are— especially online. They are capable of intercepting emails and mirroring legitimate sources like banks. Always take measures to verify, such as visiting a bank branch or calling them.
PROTECT – Act quickly if something feels wrong. If you have shared financial information or transferred money, contact your bank immediately. Help others by reporting to Scamwatch.
If you have lost money to a scam, Callun says the best course of action is to report the loss to your bank, the ACCC, and seek information regarding your legal options.
Asked about the case where he was able to recover significant funds on behalf of an Our Generation reader, Callun says she almost didn’t come forward at all.
“A lot of people feel shame and embarrassment over what’s happened when they shouldn’t at all. That reader almost didn’t call me because she didn't think she had a claim. The only reason she called me was to have a chat and let me know what she’d gone through. In the end, we were able to get the majority of the money she lost back from the bank, which was a fantastic outcome.
“We offer confidential, obligation free consultations to see if there is anything we can do.”
“Scammers are financial criminals who use sophisticated technology and psychology to rob Australians of their money and personal information,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe says.
“Reports to Scamwatch indicate scammers are targeting older Australians with retirement savings, who may be looking for investment opportunities.
“We know of a recent case where an elderly woman lost her life savings after seeing a deepfake Elon Musk video on social media, clicking the link, and registering her details online. She was assigned a ‘financial advisor’ and could see on an online dashboard she was apparently making returns, but she couldn’t withdraw her money.”
Readers can get in touch with Callun via phone on 1300 433 533 or email callunblurton@fdlegal.com.au
This article is featured in National Seniors Australia’s quarterly member magazine, Our Generation.
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