Tricks of a dodgy trade

Online romance remains a favourite for scammers, but the pandemic is providing fertile new ground

- DAVID THORNTON

Australians are on track to lose more than $200 million to scammers this year. According to Scamwatch, in 2020 they parted with $176 million, with 216,000 cases reported to authorities (10.6% involved financial loss). Already 2021 is looking worse. The figure for January and February is $43 million, with 40,000 cases reported (9.7% involved a loss).

“With another year of undoubted uncertainty ahead, we can be sure the threat landscape will continue to evolve and with the evidence pointing towards phishing remaining as one of most the successful tactics of choice by scammers, this will likely continue in 2021 as scammers look to capitalise on the ever-changing shifts in global news agendas,” says Crispin Kerr, vice-president for Proofpoint in Australia and New Zealand.

“Our own latest research shows that Australia is unfortunately above the global average for phishing attacks, so it’s clearly a tactic being employed throughout the country, with an unfortunately high degree of success.”

While scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, knowing what to look out for can save you a lot of heartache.

This year alone, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has received more than 11,000 complaints related to Covid-19.

“Our sense is that scammers stepped up their activity to take advantage of people spending more time at home and feeling financially vulnerable,” says AFCA CEO Justin Untersteiner. “Scams were growing before Covid-19 but the pandemic has accelerated this trend.”

Recently scammers have been exploiting fears born of the pandemic. “Watch out for people preying on Covid fears,” warns Kate Carruthers, chief data and insights officer for University of NSW.