Australian Scam Culture Report: March 2024 quarter
Australian Scam Culture Report: March 2024 quarter
Emerging technologies are enabling scammers to target Australians using new and unsuspecting methods, making the scam landscape more complex than ever.
Our latest Australian Scam Culture Report reveals that in addition to traditional scam delivery methods such as text, email, phone calls and social networking, scammers are increasingly leveraging dark web tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their cybercrime capability.
Key findings in scam activity from the quarter
The March 2024 quarter saw a decline in the total dollars lost by Australians to scams - just over $77 million compared to a loss of just over $80 million in the December 2023 quarter. This decrease may indicate an increasing awareness of common scam tactics among Australians.
The widely publicised large-scale attacks affecting Australians and the current tax reporting season may also impact this trend, as both individuals and organisations are targeted.
Scam behaviour trends
Our latest report also delves into the scam trends over the March 2024 quarter, including:
- The development of AI chat style technologies by cybercriminals on the dark web enabling scammers to refine their tactics and increase their scam capability
- An increase in total dollars lost to job and employment scams, with over $7 million dollars lost to this scam type in January 2024 alone
- There is a rise in remote access scams in Australia, with over 1,800 reports made this quarter.
BDO's forensic services professionals can help you mitigate and resolve high-risk matters, and help organisations create and embed governance frameworks to retain value. Contact our forensic services team to learn more about how we can help you prevent, detect, and respond to risk in your organisation.