New South Wales minister Eleni Petinos is urging Australia’s seniors to be more alert to scams as the figures for last year show that older consumers were swindled out of $11 million.

Ms Petinos who is the NSW Minister for Small Business and for Fair Trading said $6.7 million had been stolen by scammers who issued false bills in the form of fake invoices and goods that had not been ordered by their victims.

“In one case, a consumer lost $760,000 when their mortgage broker’s email had been compromised,” Ms Petinos said.

Seniors had lost a total of $1.8 million through online shopping scams often conducted through fake websites.

“Targeting vulnerable Australians is abhorrent behaviour. Fair Trading has a zero-tolerance approach to any fraudsters ripping off hard-working people,” the NSW minister said.

“Be wary of any requests for money. Another red flag is being asked to transfer money via an unusual payment method, such as preloaded debit cards, gift cards or virtual currency.

In 2021, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received 16,915 reports from NSW seniors who were the victims of scammers.

In response to questions from Neos Kosmos, the ACCC provided a breakdown of the $11.2 million reported lost to buying and selling scams in NSW according to the following categories:
* False billing ($6.7m);
* Classified scams ($2m);
* Online shopping scams ($1.8m);
* Overpayment scams ($439,000);
* Health and medical products ($103,000);
* Mobile premium services ($21,000); and
* Psychic and clairvoyant ($11,000)
The ACCC advised consumers to:
♦ Be extra cautious if a product is advertised at an unbelievably low price, or advertised to have amazing benefits or features that sound too good to be true;
♦ Only use a secure payment method that you are comfortable and familiar with.
♦ Avoid any arrangement with a stranger who asks for an upfront payment via a money order wire transfer, international funds transfer, pre-loaded card or electronic currency, like Bitcoin. It is rare to recover money sent these ways;
♦ Not send items to a buyer until their payment has cleared in your bank account.

The ACCC also advised that in the event that you have found out that you have been scammed, you should contact your bank or financial institution as soon as possible. The bank may be able to find where the money was sent, block the scam accounts and help others to avoid sending money to scammers.
For more information go to the ACCC Scamwatch website.