Australian Scam Losses Increase 28% in 2025

While the number of reported fraud cases is down, Australians lost 28% more money to online scams in the first four months of the year, compared to the same period in 2024.

See Also: Small Business. Large security risks.

The government’s National Anti-Scam Center said Monday that Australians lost over AU$119 million to various forms of scams between January and April 2025, while the total number of scams reported – 72,230 – fell by almost 25%, indicating that scammers are extracting larger amounts of money from victims.

According to the latest figures, Australians lost about AU$59 million to investment scams but the highest percentage increase was observed in losses to phishing attacks in which malicious actors impersonated government agencies or financial institutions to defraud victims. Phishing scams accounted for AU$13.7 million in financial losses, up from just AU$4.6 million a year ago.

“Scams are affecting Australians of all ages, often beginning with an unprompted or unexpected contact via social media and other digital platforms,” said Catriona Lowe, deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. “The rise in overall financial loss and the number of people being impacted is a reminder to stay alert.”

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission recently reported that it took down more than 7,300 phishing and investment scam websites that offered investment schemes and used fake news articles and deepfake videos of public figures on social media to make the fake trading platforms appear legitimate, but the takedowns had little effect.

The ASIC compared the scammers to multi-headed “hydras,” noting that the moment authorities took down their existing criminal infrastructure, fraudsters set up new companies, websites and applications to conduct investment scams (see: Aussie Regulator: Online Scammers Are Multi-Headed ‘Hydras’).

According to the National Anti-Scam Center, online scammers have succeeded in targeting victims on social media platforms so far this year. The organization said that the number of people reporting financial loss from social media-initiated scams increased by almost 50% and overall losses to these scams increased by 30% to AU$23.4 million.

When compared to social media scams, reports of phone scams declined by 11%, but citizens lost more than AU$25 million, indicating the scale at which malicious actors continue to use these vectors to victimize citizens.

Lowe said the government is counting on partnerships with banks, digital platforms and telecommunication companies to respond quickly to online scams, disrupt criminal operations and reduce the harms caused to citizens.

“The work of our fusion cells has demonstrated that a piece of data that may be unremarkable on its own, when joined with other pieces of data, can form powerful intelligence. With data held across the ecosystem, sharing data with the National Anti-Scam Centre enables those vital connections to be made,” she said.