Clever scammers have begun preying on footy fans after finding success selling fake Taylor Swift tickets and running dodgy investment ploys, one of Australia’s big four banks said.
The pivot to catch out diehard fanatics ahead of the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) grand finals continues a trend of scammers evolving methods to anything that sells out quickly or is hard to come by.
Fans of Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, and Dua Lipa, all soon to tour Australia, are expected to become targets in coming weeks.
It comes as data released on Sep. 27 shows the most scammed postcodes across the country, according to Westpac reports.
The list contains fast-growing suburbs in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, including Liverpool, Tarneit, Gosford, and Werribee.
But it’s the mining-rich states that are facing the biggest deluge of frauds.
West Australians are reporting the highest amount of scams per capita to Westpac (3.6 per 1000 residents) with Queensland marginally behind (3.5 per 1000).
Communities with increasing economic activity and those with ageing populations were particularly vulnerable, Westpac’s head of fraud prevention Ben Young said.
“Our data shows scammers aren’t letting location limit what they do, with impacts seen in all corners of the country,” Young said.
“The current scam-demic we’re facing is widespread.”
About one in three victims are aged 61 to 75, but all ages are impacted, Westpac said.
Australians have reported almost $300 million (US$206.5 million) in losses from 273,000 scams in the past year, the National Anti-Scam Centre said.
Investment scams make up the bulk of losses, but 68,000 have reported falling victim to buying and selling scams over email, text or social media.
About 110,000 have also fallen victim to phishing, where victims are tricked into providing bank details or other personal information.
As part of its suite of anti-scam armoury, Westpac and several banks now alert customers when there is a potential account name mismatch when trying to send to a new payee.
The bank also advises people to call a friend or relative if they ever feel unsure about sending money or details to someone.
Scam victims are calling for a UK-style reimbursement scheme, in which banks are forced to pay for fraud against their customers, and want proposed Australian laws to be fast-tracked.
Telcos and social media companies are also in the firing line and could be fined up to $50 million (US$34.4 million) for failing to protect residents from scammers.
People can have their say on the federal government’s draft legislation until Oct. 4.
