Australians reported scam losses of $175 million in the first half of 2025, a more than 25 percent jump on the same time last year.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe, who released the stat as part Scams Awareness Week (August 25-29), said while the number of scams reported were dropping the financial cost of scams were rising.
Ms Lowe said Australians reported more 108,305 scams to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch service in the first half of 2025, with fake websites, online advertisements, and contact through social media criminals’ preferred methods of reaching people.
She said while this was a 24 percent decrease in reports, compared to the same period last year, reports involving losses had increased significantly.
“The $174.8 million reported lost is a 26 percent increase compared to the first half of 2024.
“There has been a 40.5 percent increase in reports involving losses and this is higher for some demographic groups.”
Ms Lowe said it was about 44 percent among individuals who spoked English as a second language, and 55.3 percent for First Nations Australians compared to the same period in 2024.
She said the 2025 losses did represent a 39 percent decrease compared to the equivalent period in 2023.
“Financial losses to scams peaked in 2022 and early 2023.”
Ms Lowe said losses to phishing scams were $19.5 million in 2025, driven in part by a rise in cryptocurrency impersonation scams.
She said 14,235 reports involved losses to crypto scams, with these scams closely mirroring bank impersonation tactics, resulting in significant financial harm to victims.
“Technology is helping scammers reach more people than ever before and we see scams becoming more sophisticated and harder for people to detect.”
