The advent of the internet has brought with it a multitude of benefits for our society.
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But one area that has seemingly grown exponentially is the sheer number of scams that pervade our lives –from phishing emails asking for our bank details, through to lottery and inheritage fraud and computer support fraud.
Most of us would like to think we can spot a scam a proverbial mile away – promises of millions of dollars from some African prince seems as obvious as the nose on our face to most people.
But the fact is, hundreds of Australians are quite successfully scammed every day. And those less than scrupulous people involved in running the scams are coming up with more ingenious and imaginative ways to steal our hard-earned money away from us.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, consumer fraud costs Australians a staggering $1.4 billion every year.
In a report from the Australian Institute of Criminology: The relationship between age and consumer fraud victimisation, the author writes that advances in technology have allowed fraudsters to reach an increasing number of potential victims.
Rightly or wrongly, many would assume that the older we get, the more open we are to becoming a victim of fraud.
Sadly, according to the report, that prejudice is founded.
Almost 2700 people were surveyed in the report, across a wide range of varying age groups.
What the report found was the older you are, the more likely you are to become a victim.
For example, the majority of victims of work-from-home fraud were aged 45 and over. The majority of victims of dating fraud were also aged between 45 and 54.
And not surprisingly, the number of people who fell victim to computer support schemes were in the 65 and over age group.
Protecting these victims is difficult – if not near impossible.
There are already a multitude of laws in place and the punishments meted out for perpetrators is often harsh.
But catching people in the act is extremely difficult.
Education is still our means of defence against scammers both here and abroad.
Encouraging people to learn to spot a scam is essential. The catchphrase “If it’s too good to be true, it often is” certainly rings true.