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Australians lost $58.3 million to social media scams this year, according to the ACCC, but there are signs a multi-agency crackdown is working.

Deputy chair Catriona Lowe called social media a “gold mine” for scammers, costing more than any other scam method in the first 10 months of 2024.

“In the September quarter alone, we saw a 146 per cent increase in reported financial losses linked to social media,” Lowe said.

Social media scams were substantially more financially damaging per incident despite being less frequently reported by victims.

While they accounted for over one-fifth (22 per cent) of the $262 million lost to scams in 2024, they only represented 7 per cent of total reports to Scamwatch.

“It shows just how lucrative these scams are for the criminal groups behind them – and serves as a reminder to us all of the need to be suspicious of anyone who unexpectedly contacts us on social media,” Lowe said.

Of the $58.3 million lost to social media scams, Scamwatch data showed the top categories were investment scams ($39.2 million), romance scams ($9 million) and job scams ($4.5 million).

Fraudsters often created fake social media profiles, posing as trusted individuals like financial advisers, romantic partners or recruiters to deceive victims into handing over money or personal information.

“They learn a lot about you from what you share on social media and trick you into sharing personal information, which they then use to target you in other scams,” Lowe said.

It comes as the ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Centre delivered an update on its crackdown on job and employment scams.

Since launching a job scam fusion cell to co-ordinate anti-scam action between the government and industry in September, the ACCC said NASC had taken down over 200 job scam websites and referred over 200 phone numbers for disruption.

It said it was also working with law enforcement, government agencies and cryptocurrency platforms to freeze or restrict cryptocurrency wallets being used in job scams.

“The fusion cell is already proving effective in disrupting the activities of criminal groups who are stealing from Australian job seekers by advertising or offering jobs that do not exist,” the ACCC said.

It is the second fusion cell launched by NASC since it commenced work in July in the ACCC last year.

An investment scam fusion cell that ran from August 2023 to February 2024 removed over 100 scam advertisements and 220 websites and diverted 113 consumer calls to a recorded warning.

“Job scams involve criminals posing as legitimate businesses or recruiters and targeting jobseekers with lucrative offers to complete tasks – deceiving their victims into handing over money,” Lowe said.

“This public-private taskforce has brought together expertise from social media platforms, online employment websites, banks, cryptocurrency platforms, law enforcement, and commonly impersonated businesses to tackle these scams.”

By Christine Chen
10 December 2024
accountantsdaily.com.au