Source: Adobe Stock
article-article-body
Money lost to scams is tracking in the right direction even as fraudsters prey on the cost of living crisis to target people looking for side hustles.
An 11% fall in total scam losses was clocked over the March quarter, the National Anti-Scam Centre said in a report.
Most of the improvement was led by shrinking losses to investment scams.
Yet with a sizeable $73.2 million lost to fraudsters over the three months and a slight uptick in the number of scams reported to the government body from the quarter before, Australia is facing an uphill battle.
Scammers were starting to exploit the cost-of-living crisis, the report found, by deceiving social media users trying to make extra money through second jobs or side hustles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Handpicked for you
“Time of survival”: Aussies taking on second jobs as cost pressures bite
One in five Australians are working a second job to keep up with rising costs and almost half are afraid they will be let go.
ATO to receive $187 million to combat tax and superannuation fraud
The Australian Taxation Office has been given $187 million in new funding to bolster its defences against tax and superannuation fraud.
COMMENTS
SmartCompany is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while it is being reviewed, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.