ACCC: Australians Lose over AU$70 Million to Investment Scams in H1 2021

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released statistics on financial scams within the country via Scamwatch, showing that Australians have lost more than AU$70 million to investment scams so far this year.

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According to data from the ACCC, more than half of the AU$70 million in losses were to cryptocurrency, especially through Bitcoin. Losses to investment scams involving Bitcoin have already reached AU$25.7 million this year, compared to AU$17.8 million across all of 2020, representing a 44% increase.

People aged 65 years and over have lost the most money to investment scams so far in 2021, experiencing losses of AU$18.8 million from 548 reports. 

There has been an increase of 66% in the number of reports about investment scams made by people aged 18-24 years, and the losses of more than AU$1.7 million so far is an increase of 259% compared to all of last year.

In the first half of this year, phone was the most common contact mode used with investment scams, accounting for 1,429 reports (30%) of all investment scam reports with losses of AU$27.7 million (39% of all losses to investment scams). 

In addition, mobile apps and social networking sites accounted for 40% of all investment scams which involved a financial loss.