AUSTRALIA | Over 65-year-olds made up 26.5 of cyber crimes, urging officials to introduce tougher cyber security measures to protect seniors.
The National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams Report highlighted the complex, adaptive, and “wicked” nature of scams, and the critical role of collaboration in disrupting criminal networks, as Australians reported more than AUD 2 billion in financial losses.
The report combines data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Australians aged 65 and over, who, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, comprise approximately 17.1 percent of the population, accounted for 26.5 percent of total losses reported to Scamwatch.
In 2025, Australians made a combined total of 481,523 scam reports across these institutions. Of these, 274,577 reports involved financial losses totalling AUD 2.18 billion.
While reports have stabilised, losses have increased by 7.8 percent, compared with 2024. Overall, Australia has seen a reduction in reported scam losses of 29.7 percent since the peak of AUD 3.1 billion in 2022.
The top five scam types by loss were investment scams (AUD 837.7 million), payment redirection scams (AUD 166.8 million), romance scams (AUD 139.9 million), phishing scams (AUD 97.6 million) and remote access scams (AUD 69.9 million).
The financial losses from these five scam types accounted for 60 percent of total losses in 2025.
“Scams are often described as a ‘wicked problem’ because they are complex, fast-evolving, and resistant to simple solutions. The Targeting Scams Report provides an overview of the scam landscape and highlights the collaboration and shared accountability needed to tackle the harm caused by scams both here in Australia and globally,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
Earlier this month, Australia joined other G7 countries to endorse a Call to Action to Combat Fraud at the United Nations and Interpol Global Fraud Summit. In addition, more than 100 organisations endorsed a Public-Private Partnership Framework to enhance global cooperation in the fight against scams.
“As Australia and indeed the world faces increasing sophistication in scam activity through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the industrialisation of criminal syndicates through scam compounds, it is clear more needs to be done, quickly and at scale,” Lowe said.
“It’s also important to note that the actions demonstrated in the report are made possible because Australians took the time to share their experiences. Without people speaking up, we simply wouldn’t have the insights needed to track and disrupt scam activity. We encourage people to report suspicious activity so we can continue improving our understanding and response to scams.”
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