Fraud Forum Gathers Experts to Slam Scams Australians remain too complacent about the risk of fraud, despite losing an estimated $1 billion a year to scams, chair of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce Peter Kell, has warned.Every year, one in 20 Australians fall victim to a scam.“Most people know someone who has been scammed or lost money to fraud, but most people still don’t think it will happen to them, but anyone can be the target of a scam,” said Mr Kell.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission continues to receive in excess of 6000 calls a year relating to Nigerian-style advance fee scams alone, despite this scam being one of the most widely publicised.
“Some scams are easy to spot while others scammers will spend a long time building trust or use connections through friends to rip people off.”In an effort to improve awareness of scams and help consumers better protect themselves the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce will target the most common scams and strategies for addressing them during its annual National Consumer Fraud Week from March 2-8.Formed in 2005, the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce is made up of 18 government regulatory agencies and departments in Australia and New Zealand that work together to better protect consumers from fraud and scams.
The Taskforce co-ordinates the work of agencies and works to reduce the incidence and impact of frauds and scams, and each year it creates a co-ordinated information campaign for consumers, timed to coincide with global consumer fraud prevention activities.
This year, the centrepiece of National Consumer Fraud Week is a Fraud Forum, with expert speakers from around the country gathering to discuss common scams and ways for consumers to protect themselves from scammers. Taskforce Chair and ACCC Deputy Director, Peter Kell said scammers use a number of avenues to reach victims, including door-to-door, snail mail, email, telephone and text messages, and over the internet.
“Scammers can use all kinds of tactics, including text messages and made-up profiles in social networking sites to pretend to be someone known and trusted and persuade people to send money or trick the unwary into revealing personal and banking details.“Protecting personal information is just as important as protecting your money, as identity fraud continues to grow internationally and is becoming increasingly sophisticated,” said Mr Kell.
The Taskforce would like to know about any scams that members of the public have received and how they responded to them. The Australian Institute of Criminology, a Taskforce member, will conduct a short online public survey to gather more information to assist in the fight against fraud. Gathering this information will help to improve the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of scam offendersAll responses to the online survey will remain anonymous.
Individual responses will not be disclosed to any third parties and will only be used for statistical analysis. To complete the survey, or report a scam, follow the links from the website www.scamwatch.gov.au.Anyone can be the target of a scam. Remember, scams target you, protect yourself.
To find out more about National Consumer Fraud Week, scams, or to report a scam, visit http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/ or call 1300 795 995.
Source: Click here to view source of this article
