Continued action critical to combat fraud as annual scam losses exceed $2 billion
AI-enabled scam activity is explicitly flagged as an escalating threat, but this item is primarily a consumer-protection release—not an AI governance document.
Key points
- ACCC's 2025 Targeting Scams Report records $2.18 billion in Australian scam losses, up 7.8 per cent on 2024.
- AI and industrialised criminal syndicates are cited as drivers of increasing scam sophistication, per ACCC Deputy Chair.
- AI is mentioned briefly as a threat amplifier; the report's primary focus is scam typology and disruption activity, not AI governance.
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"Continued action critical to combat fraud as annual scam losses exceed $2 billion"
Source: ACCC – News Centre
Published: 29 March 2026
URL: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/continued-action-critical-to-combat-fraud-as-annual-scam-losses-exceed-2-billion
The ACCC's National Anti-Scam Centre has released its 2025 Targeting Scams Report, covering 481,523 scam reports and $2.18 billion in financial losses across Scamwatch, ReportCyber, AFCX, IDCARE and ASIC. Investment scams remain the largest loss category at $837.7 million. The ACCC Deputy Chair flags AI and the industrialisation of criminal syndicates as key drivers of increasing sophistication. The report documents disruption activity including removal of over 7,500 scam URLs and referrals to telecommunications and platform partners, and references the newly endorsed Scams Prevention Framework and international cooperation at the UN/Interpol Global Fraud Summit.
Retrieved from SIMS, 18 July 2026.