Australians losing billions to rising credit card fraud

CANBERRA - Credit card fraud is on the rise in Australia, with victims losing billions of dollars in 2022-2023, official data has revealed.

According to figures released last Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 1.8 million Australians aged 15 and over were victims of card fraud in the 12 months to the end of June 2023, reported Xinhua.

The figure represented 8.7 per cent of the over-15 population, up from 8.1 per cent in 2021-22 and 6.9 per cent in 2020-21.

In total, Australians who experienced card fraud lost 2.2 billion Australian dollars (US$1.4 billion) in 2022-23.

One third of victims lost less than 100 Australian dollars, the ABS said, and 17.8 per cent lost over 1,000 Australian dollars. The median amount withdrawn or used per incident was 200 Australian dollars.

People aged 45-54 had the highest card fraud victimisation rate at 11.5 per cent, followed by those aged 35-44 and 55-64. People aged 15-24 were the least likely to experience card fraud at 3.9 per cent.

Additionally, the ABS reported that 514,300 people were victims of scams in 2022-23.

"Buying or selling scams, which includes things like false billing and online shopping scams, were the most common, experienced by nearly 200,000 Australians," William Milne, head of crime and justice statistics at the ABS, said in a media release.

Australians aged 35-44 had the highest scam victimisation rate at 3.5 per cent and those aged 15-24 again the lowest at 1.5 per cent. (1 Australian dollar equals about 0.66 U.S. dollars) - BERNAMA-XINHUA