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Scams Awareness Week 2022 takes place 7-11 November. This Scams Awareness Week, along with over 350 partner organisations, we’re encouraging you to learn ways to identify scams and take the time to check whether an offer or contact is genuine before you act on it.

With scammers continually developing new ways to catch people out, we need to increase our vigilance in checking for those little clues that can alert us that something is a scam.

Scams cost Australian consumers, businesses, and the economy hundreds of millions of dollars each year and cause serious emotional harm to victims and their families.

In 2021 Australians made more than 286,600 reports to Scamwatch and reported losses of around $324 million. By the end of August this year, Australians had lost even more with reported losses of over $381 million.

As alarming as these numbers are, we know that around one third of people who are scammed never tell anyone, so the true numbers are probably much higher.

Follow Scamwatch on Twitter and explore our website for more information and tips on how to protect yourself from scams.

Scamwatch tools and resources

The Scamwatch and ACCC websites contain a range of tools and resources about scams.

• Scamwatch Report Form: If you’ve come across a scam you can report it here.
• Scamwatch reporting statistics: Provides up-to-date statistics on scams reported by Australians.
• Targeting Scams Reports: Our yearly report on scam trends and statistics.
• Helping a friend or family member who is a victim to a scam: Useful information if someone close to you has been scammed.
• Be Safe, Be Alert Online: Information on organisations who may be able to help when someone has been scammed.
• Where else to get help: Other organisations who might be able to help when someone has fallen victim to a scam.
• Little Black Book of Scams: Information on identifying a scam (available digitally in a range of languages).

(ACCC)