$1b online fraud a year, ACCC says

By JESSICA NAIRN
Australians reported losses of more than $70 million to online fraud last year, according to Australia’s consumer watchdog. But losses could be as high as $1 billion.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned the real losses however, could be much higher.

Deputy chair of the ACCC Peter Kell said a survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, based the loss on the 20,000 people who contacted the commission last year.

“When complaints to other agencies are taken into account,the ABS estimates losses could be up to $1 billion annually,” he said.(01/03/2010) Mr Kell said many frauds scams remained unregistered because people were embarrassed about reporting they have been victims.

“Realistically, the figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Topping the scams were advance payment schemes, followed by online auctions, shopping and lotteries.

Public servant Melanie Klein said she almost became victim to an advance payment scam.

“I was searching for a place to rent in Melbourne last year on an online classifieds site,” she said. “One place looked really good from the photos and the rent was really cheap.”

Ms Klein said she became suspicious when the landlord said she was overseas and all correspondence must occur online.

“She wanted me to deposit $1000 into her bank account and said she would leave the keys at the post office,” she said.

Ms Klein’s suspicions were confirmed when she found warnings on online forums about the advertisement.

A national campaign aimed at raising awareness and combating consumer fraud was launched this month by the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce.

The “fraud fortnight” campaign is part of an international mass-market fraud project in response to the exponential growth of global scams.

The chair of the taskforce, Lousie Sylvan, said mass-marketed fraud was a new.

In a statement, Ms Sylvan’s advice tor consumers was not to respond to “out of the blue, too good to be true offers”, keep protections on r computer sand to never give out personal details to organisations who initiate contact.