Australians have been scammed for 35.8 million USD just in 2018

For the first 10 months of the year Australians have lost more than 35,8 million USD to financial scammers, the latest report by Scamwatch, the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network operated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), reveals.

Since the beginning of the year the scam reports, filed by Australian victims reached 2 934 and the reported losses are in the amount of 35 853 001 USD.

A small comfort is that in October scams were fewer than in the preceding months with loses of just 1 365 444 USD, compared to 1,78 million USD in September .

The age group that has lost most money are Australians aged 65 and above, while most reports are filed by young people – aged between 25 and 34.

Most scams are linked to fake investment schemes on the real estate market, the stock market or with commodities.

Other investment scams are focused on the crypt currency market – increasingly popular in the past 12 months, and plain old binary options bets.

Offenders usually cold call their victims with a promise of inside information and guaranteed returns.

When seeking investment opportunities on the retail forex and CFD market, we strongly recommend dealing only with brokers regulated by official financial watchdogs such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).