Scammers are assailing small businesses on multiple fronts say ACCC

With Australians facing a hefty $4 billion scam bill this year, small businesses across the country are being urged to learn the tricks of the trade and arm themselves against scammers.

Today marks the start of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC’s) Scams Awareness Week (November 7-11), and the Australian government has confirmed this morning that it will give the ACCC $10 million to set up a new National Anti-Scam Centre.

According to Scamwatch, small businesses are an easy target because scammers believe the owners are busy and have fewer security protections than large businesses.

From invoices for advertising, directory listings that were never requested, malware and ransomware, the list of scams targeting small businesses is getting longer and longer.

Some of the most common scams against small businesses include false billing, which asks businesses to pay fake invoices for directory listings, advertising, domain name renewals or office supplies that weren’t ordered.

Overpayment scams, malware, ransomware and investment scams are also at the top of the list of scams targeting small businesses.

As Christmas approaches, small businesses should be aware of online shopping scams, with scammers pretending to be legitimate online sellers either with a fake website or a fake ad on a genuine retailer site.

Another common scam is whale and spear phishing scams, which are when a business is targeted for confidential information for fraudulent purposes.

Scamwatch also warns small businesses that scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with scammers going to great lengths to convince business owners that the documents they send you or the offers they make are legitimate when they are not.

Scammers can also easily copy or modify letterheads, names and logos to make them look real, or set up a professional-looking but fake website.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones says the $4 billion figure was almost double the money lost by Australians to scammers last year.

“It’s a tragedy at any point in time, but when Australians are struggling with cost-of-living increases, to have their life savings ripped away from them is just unbearable,” he told the Seven Network.

“That’s money that should be in the small businesses or households, not flowing to these criminals and scumbags ripping Australians off.

“When you look at those numbers moving from $2 billion to $4 billion, we can’t afford to have another year where there is no action on this.”

In 2021, Australians made more than 286,600 reports to Scamwatch and reported losses of around $324 million.

Already by the end of August this year, Australians reported losses totalling more than $381 million, but the true numbers are thought to be much higher with around one-third of Australians never telling anyone they have been scammed.