More Aussies than ever before falling victim to credit card fraud: report

More than 1 million Australians (one in 24) experienced credit card fraud in 2014-15, almost double the figure (660,000) from 2010-11, new statistics revealed on Wednesday.

Overall, the amount of money stolen by fraudsters during that time reached a new high of 1.63 billion U.S dollars over the 12 month period, more than double the amount stolen from Australians in 2010-11 (780 million U.S dollars).

The statistics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also revealed that after reimbursement from financial institutions, Australians were still out of pocket more than 66 million U.S dollars over the 12-month period.

William Milne, director of the ABS National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics said trends have shown more Australians than ever before were becoming victims of personal fraud.

"More broadly, 1.6 million Australians (8.5 percent of the population) experienced some form of personal fraud (card fraud, identity theft or scams to which they responded), the highest since the survey was first conducted in 2007," Milne said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"Just over half (56 percent) the population aged 15 and over were exposed to at least one scam during 2014-15, an increase from 36 percent in 2010-11. However, the proportion of people who responded to a scam decreased from 2.9 percent in 2010-11 to 2.4 percent in 2014-15."

Milne also said that half of the people surveyed said they had changed their behavior as a result of being a fraud victim. He said a change in behavior could include being more careful or aware at ATMs, being cautious of who sees their card, or changing their PINs more often. Endit