Skip to start of content

Home → Publications → Reports → Trends and issues → Consumer scams in Australia : an overview

Consumer scams in Australia : an overview

Abstract

As part of a global effort to fight mass-marketed consumer frauds and scams, consumer protection agencies in a number of western countries participate in a month of fraud prevention activities each year to raise awareness of the problem and provide advice to consumers on how to avoid being victimised. An initiative of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network in 2000, the campaign is joined by more countries each year, and in March 2006 some 33 countries participated. In Australia and New Zealand, 18 government agencies comprise the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce, established in March 2005 to support the network's activities. The key message to consumers in 2006 was 'when a scam comes calling - delete it, hang up, destroy it'. This emphasised the fact that consumers are their own best defence against scams, and should always err on the side of caution when conducting business transactions. This paper presents the results of a pilot study undertaken during March 2006 in which 103 of the 121 consumers who contacted the ACCC's national hotline agreed to provide information on their experiences of consumer fraud over the preceding year. Although the results are not indicative of consumer fraud throughout Australia, some preliminary findings are of interest, particularly as there has been limited statistical data to inform the development of policy in this area to date.

Related links