The landscape of business IT security continues to be driven by the ongoing global changes in working culture, notably the shift to hybrid working.

Scammers continue to adapt their tactics to take advantage of the way we now work.

Let’s break down some of the ACCC Scamwatch data for 2022.

Australians are losing money to scammers

As a country, we lost a combined sum of $569 million in 2022, which is up a staggering 76% from $324 million in 2021. In 2022, the most money was lost in March, with $95 million.

The number of scams reported in 2022 totalled 239,237, down 17% from reports in 2021.

Top Scam Types

Scamwatch also ranked the top 10 scams by amount lost and most reported.

For amount lost, the highest ranking was investment scams ($377 million lost), dating & romance scams ($40.6 million lost), false billing ($25.3 million lost), phishing ($24.6 million lost), and remote access scams ($21.7 million lost).

For most reported, phishing tops the list with 74,574 reports.

Top scams by amount lost

Top scams by reports

Source: ACCC Scamwatch

Top Scam Delivery Methods

Phone and text message were the two most prevalent methods.

Comparing 2022 vs 2021:

  • Phone call scams accounted for $141 million lost vs. $100 million in 2021

  • Email attacks accounted for $77.3 million lost vs. $48.3 million in 2021

  • Text message attacks accounted for $28.5 million lost vs. $10 million in 2021

Source: ACCC Scamwatch

How can You Make Your Business Scam-proof?

This data is a serious and sobering reminder that security threats are not going away, with no room for complacency regarding your business IT security.

In a previous blog post, we covered our top tips to keep your email secure. Educating your staff with some simple recommendations is a great place to start. The ever-present threat of phishing emails means we all need to be vigilant about what lands in our inboxes.

If you are serious about your IT security, then it’s time to engage a managed services provider like Arrow.

The good news is that Arrow’s managed security platform can help secure your business through proactive threat identification, investigation, and response.

If you’re ready to secure your business, it’s time to talk with our IT security experts.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2021 and has been updated for accuracy and relevance.

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