Western Australians reported losing a total of $10.7 million to scams in 2018, a 32 per cent increase from the previous year, according to figures released by WA ScamNet.

There was also an increase in the number of victims with 569 people reporting losses to WA ScamNet in 2018, a 42 percent increase from 2017.

There was a huge hike in losses to investment scams, which topped the list of categories, followed by romance scams and ‘buying and selling’ online resulted in more people being stung.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard said that the losses were staggering as scams become a major crime impacting victims around the world.

“Perpetrating scams is a highly profitable business for organised criminals who are becoming increasingly professional at fleecing money from their innocent victims as they constantly change their names and methods to keep ahead of consumer warnings,” Mr Hillyard said.

“Apart from the financial losses, there is a huge emotional toll for victims, many of whom are traumatised by their experience and suffer from a lack of confidence as a result. In the case of romance scams, there is a heart-breaking realisation that someone they had fallen in love with online has betrayed them.”

Scammers ramped up their threatening behaviour in 2018 by making people believe that they would be arrested or deported if they didn’t pay a tax debt immediately, often by purchasing iTunes or Google Play cards. Losses to tax scams in 2018 were $111,000 from 29 victims.

“Scammers masqueraded as the tax office, police, telcos, foreign embassies and banks in order to dupe their targets into paying money, revealing personal information or gaining access to computers and, ultimately, bank accounts,” the Commissioner said.

“These fraudsters may also pretend to be crime prevention agencies and enlist the help of their targets to ‘catch a scammer’ by getting them to send money so that the scammer can be caught when they come to collect it.

“Of particular concern is the payment interception or ‘man in the middle’ scams where fake invoices are sent and sometimes paid, and bogus emails requesting a change of bank account result in payments being diverted to scammers. In 2018, ten victims reported losing $294,000 to these types of scams.

“Individuals and businesses are potential targets for scammers, so our challenge is to ensure that they don’t become victims by suffering financial losses and rewarding the scammers for their evil deeds.

“Out of the blue emails and phone calls should be treated with suspicion, especially if they are demanding money, personal information or asking to change bank details.

“If you are not 100 per cent sure that the person you are dealing with is the real deal, hang up and call the person or organisation back using previously known contact details or by looking up their official website.

“Don’t use any contact information given by the callers and, although the phone number or email address may appear to be authentic, it will be fake so exercise caution.”

How to protect yourself from scams:

• Know who you're dealing with;
• Do not open suspicious texts, pop-up windows or click on links or attachments in emails – delete them;
• Don't respond to phone calls about your computer asking for remote access – hang up;
• Keep your personal details secure and choose your passwords carefully;
• Review your privacy and security settings on social media;
• Beware of any requests for your details or money;
• Be wary of unusual payment requests;
• Be careful when shopping online.

Scam types and value of losses

Scam types and number of victims

In 2018, WA ScamNet at Consumer Protection received more than 5,300 phone calls and about 17,000 emails relating to scams. Information and advice on scams is available on the WA ScamNet website www.scamnet.wa.gov.au. Enquiries can be made by email wascamnet@dmirs.wa.gov.au or by calling 1300 30 40 54.

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Media Contact: Alan Hynd, (08) 6552 9248 / 0429 078 791 / alan.hynd@dmirs.wa.gov.au