This week’s OSIN showcases the report of the ACCC on scams activity in 2022

The 14th annual Targeting Scams report offers insights into scams affecting Australians in 2022 and efforts by various sectors to combat them. Despite these measures, scam losses have risen significantly in recent years. Combined losses reported to multiple agencies, including Scamwatch, ReportCyber, Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, IDCARE, ASIC, and others, reached at least $3.1 billion in 2022, marking an 80% increase from 2021. Notably, this data omits certain banks and remitters from 2021, with some government agencies unable to contribute. Data adjustments were made for high-loss reports, but challenges in deduplication remain, and many losses were likely unreported. Notably, the report doesn’t include scam loss data from cryptocurrency exchanges. Additionally, past research indicates that just 13% of scam losses are reported to Scamwatch, suggesting that actual scam losses in 2022 may far exceed the reported $3.1 billion.