Australians cheated out of more than $100 million amid ‘huge’ COVID-19 scam surge

Australians have been cheated out of more than $108 million dollars so far this year, as scams surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Delia Rickard, said there has been a “huge increase” in the number of people falling victim to scams.

“They’re the same old scams dressed up in lots of different ways,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“Lots and lots of scams at the moment are attaching themselves to covid-times.”

Ms Rickard said the surge has been driven by scams pretending to be from government agencies.

“What we’re seeing a huge amount of, that we don’t normally see nearly as much of, is government impersonation scams,” she said.

“Whether they’re pretending to be Australia Post, the ATO, Home Affairs, myGov, Services Australia … they’re usually phishing for your personal information.”

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