Australians lost over $70 million to investment scams in the first half of this year, more than the total losses reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch for the whole of 2020.
Deputy Chair of the ACCC, Delia Rickard said projected losses to investment scams were set to reach $140 million by the end of the year.
“Data from Scamwatch shows a 53.4 per cent increase in reports about investment scams received so far, up from 3,104 in the first half of 2020 to 4,763 reports so far in 2021,” Ms Rickard said.
“In addition to taking victims’ money, scammers often commit fraud or identity theft using the information they obtained from the victim,” she said.
Ms Rickard said investment scams were more prevalent than ever and scammers were capitalising on people’s interest in cryptocurrency in particular.
She said more than half of the $70 million in losses were to cryptocurrency scams, which were also the most commonly reported type of investment scam with 2,240 reports.
“Scammers pretend to have highly profitable trading systems based on individual expertise or through algorithms they developed,” she said.
“Victims will initially be able to access small returns sourced from other victims’ initial deposits but the scammers soon claim problems with making withdrawals and cut off contact.”
Ms Rickard said people should be wary of investment opportunities that promised low risk and high returns and warned that if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was.
She said losses to other types of investment scams, including imposter bond scams, Ponzi scams and romance baiting scams, were also increasing and traditional investment scams were still very common.
Information on how to spot investment scams can be accessed on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) MoneySmart website at this PS News link.
