Con artists are getting more money from Victorians than from targets in other states, an assessment of scams has shown.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s annual Targeting Scams report shows that Victorians who lost money to scams in 2014 paid out more than $8100 each.
While more money in total was taken from victims in NSW, targets there were, on average, worth about $600 less to the scammers involved.
The report also shows:
- More than half of scams are conducted over the phone, through voice calls or text.
- More money is lost to dating and romance scams than any other kind.
- Scam losses reported to the ACCC are falling. Reported losses totalled $81,832,793 in 2014, down 8 per cent from the previous year.
- Victims are fairly evenly split between genders (55 per cent women, 45 per cent men).
- Victims are also fairly evenly split across age groups, except for those under 24, who account for just 9 per cent.
Jan Marshall, a Melbourne writer and advocate for scam victims, lost more than $260,000 to a man she met on an online dating site in 2012.
He was handsome and successful. His messages came from around the world as he travelled for business. Within a month she had become infatuated and agreed to marry him.
Soon after, he began to talk about “difficulties” he was having in business. He began asking for money — always under the proviso he would repay her as soon as possible. He provided bank statements showing a balance of more than £1 million.
More than $160,000 of the money Ms Marshall sent came from a self-managed superannuation fund she accessed, and the Tax Office is still pursuing her for $46,000 tax on that money.
“You just feel so ashamed, so stupid, so idiotic,” she said.
“Even today I am reluctant to go out and meet new people.”
The ACCC report says Australians lost $28 million to romance and dating fraud last year, but Ms Marshall says that is “just the tip of the iceberg”. The report’s release coincides with the start of the ACCC’s National Consumer Fraud Week.
