Today, The ACCC release it’s 2018 Scams report, Makes for a very interesting read and all business owners should at least take notice.

in 2018 Australians lost almost HALF A BILLION DOLLARS That’s Billion with B, Which is $149 Million more than in 2017.

“And these record losses are likely just the tip of the iceberg. We know that not everyone who suffers a loss to a scammer reports it to a government agency.” – ACCC Deputy Chair, Delia Rickard said.

Dating and Romance scams have seen the most increase, from $42 million in 2017 to $60.5 Million in 2018

It’s also interesting to see that 46.9% of the scams were Phone based with $30.3 Million reported as lost, Whilst at the same time only 23.2% scams are email based but they lost $25.3 Million.
Showing quite clearly that while there’s less email scams, they’re more effective

Scams are clearly targeted to older people, and Men appear to have higher losses on Average
Men: Avg Loss: $714.82
Women: Avg Loss: $518.04