Highlights:
- Six in ten Aussies have been a victim of a scam (or know someone who has been)
- More than eight in ten (84%) Australians say they are confident in their ability to recognise and avoid scams
- Aussies believe that scams have changed over the past 12 months, with the most commonly cited changes including an increase in scam messages/calls (64%)
- Scams are becoming more sophisticated, and therefore harder to identify as fake, with prompts looking more real.
- On average, Australians say they receive 4.98 scam calls/emails/SMS/social media messages per week (or almost one per day, or equivalent to 258 messages per year).
- Australians are most likely to contact their bank if they were to fall victim to a scam (79%), followed by reporting the scam to the police (63%).
- Interestingly, 12% of Aussies would contact the scammer directly.
A new study by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia shows the average Aussie receives over 250 scam attempts a year.
The scale of frauds in Australia is revealed by research released today by Commonwealth Bank, with three out of five (60%) Australians claiming they have either directly experienced a scam or know someone who has.
Australians’ opinions towards scammers, how they would feel if they fell for one, and how sophisticated scams have become in recent years were all topics of the CommBank study.
According to the study, 57% of Australians believe they are more concerned about scams now than they were a year ago.
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The launch of the research coincides with the launch of a new ‘CommBank Safe’ national advertising campaign, which is part of a broad, longer-term initiative to raise awareness and help protect Australians from scams.
The research’s release coincides with the beginning of a new national advertising campaign called “CommBank Safe,”
Against the backdrop of the devastating data breach in Australia, CommBank Safe is a national campaign to raise awareness and help protect Australians from scams.
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CBA General Manager of Group Fraud, James Roberts, said: “Recent events have served as a reminder that scams and fraud continue to rise. The CommBank Safe campaign is a call to arms encouraging every Australian to stay safe.
New CommBank research showed that despite the prevalence of scams in Australia, a third (33%) of Australians who fell victim to a scam did not report it due to various factors, including feeling like it was their fault (41%), believing that it wouldn’t be worth the effort (33%), and feeling embarrassed or ashamed (26%).
The research also revealed that the increased concern could be due to 64% of Australians saying they receive more scam attempts today than 12 months ago, and 57% saying scams have become more sophisticated and harder to identify as fake.
In fact, Australians revealed they receive, on average, five scam calls, emails or messages a week, equating to over 250 attempts a year.
