Men lost more money to scams in 2023, a year which saw Australians lose over $455 million in total to scams, according to government data.
The National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch found the gender split between scam victims was relatively even, with 49.2% of scam reports made by women and 48.8% by men.
However, men lost significantly more money to scams in 2023 — a year with record levels of financial scam complaints.
Investment scams
Scamwatch found phishing scams (e.g. a scammer impersonating a company like AusPost) were the most reported scams last year, costing victims $25.2 million.
However, investment scams represented the biggest financial loss, at a cost of $276 million.
Investment scams are when a person attempts to trick someone into investing money, for example, crypto, gambling or property scams.
More than 66% of total financial losses to investment fraud in 2023 were reported by men.
Men aged 35-44 were more likely to report being victims of investment scams than men aged 45-65.
Dating and romance scams represented the second-highest financial losses to scammers — nearly $36 million in 2023.
Reports from women made up 69% of these losses. Women aged 35-44 were more likely to report dating and romance scams than any other age group.
In general, people over 65 reported the most money lost to ScamWatch.
Complaints
Last month, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) said it received more than 100,000 complaints in 2023 — almost doubling its 2022 total.
Alexandra Kelly, Director of Casework at the Financial Rights Legal Centre, said the rise in scam complaints showed financial firms haven’t done enough to address scams.
“Banks, telcos and other institutions need to take responsibility for the fact that scammers are using their payment and communications systems to perpetrate fraud,” Kelly said.
