A survey commissioned by the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce has revealed that Australians lost more than $1billion dollars to personal fraud last year.
A survey commissioned by the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce has revealed that Australians lost more than $1billion dollars to personal fraud last year.
The survey, which was conducted by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that more than 800 000 Australians were a victim of fraud in the last twelve months. Of those, more than 50% lost money to fraud – with 499,500 the victim of identity theft. The most common fraud reported involved credit cards.
All victims of credit or bank card fraud incurred a financial loss: 25 per cent lost less than $100; 26 per cent lost between $101 and $500; and 3 per cent lost more than $10,000.
The remaining 23 per cent suffered identity theft, involving unauthorised use of their personal details. These people reported forged documents had been used to conduct business, open accounts or take out loans illegally in their name.
Close to 6 million Australians were exposed to email scams through unsolicited invitations, requests or notifications designed to obtain personal information or money. Hundreds of thousands lost money after replying to phishing scams or pyramid schemes.
Source:
Australian IT News
Brought to you by CyberShack.com.au
