Australians scammed out of record 223 mln USD in 2016: report

A record number of Australians were scammed out of around 300 million AU dollars (223 million U.S. dollars) in 2016, according to a report handed down by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Monday.

The "Targeting Scams" report showed that the ACCC and the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) received a combined 200,000 reports about scams, a 47 percent increase on the number of scams reported in 2015.

In a statement accompanying the report released on Monday, the ACCC's deputy chair, Delia Rickard said social media was a new domain of choice for fraudsters.

"We're asking the millions of Australians who use social media to be aware that scammers are increasingly using social media platforms as a way to contact, trick and prey upon the unsuspecting," Rickard said.

"We have witnessed a sharp increase in scams taking place through social media sites."

Rickard said two of the most common social media scams were dating and romance and fake trader scams. She said about 30 percent of dating and romance scam victims, or 1,352 people, were contacted via social media sites, in particular Facebook.

"Dating and romance scammers trick their victims into falling in love with them and then use their victim's trust to deceitfully take their money," Rickard said.

"The ACCC is working with Facebook, as well as the major banks, MoneyGram, Paypal, Western Union and Apple to better tackle scams and reduce the harm experienced by consumers." Endit