$2bn scam losses revealed as AI fuels new criminal wave

Australians lost more than $2bn to scams in 2025.

Released on Monday, the figures show investment scams are the most common, accounting for 38 per cent of reported losses, while romance scams cost people at least $139.9m.

Betting and sports investment scams almost tripled on the year prior, with reports of this type climbing almost 20 per cent and losses tripling to $2.4m.

While reported losses totalled $2.18bn in 2025, that is down from a peak of $3.1bn in 2022.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said the industrialisation of scams coupled with AI was a key driver.

“As Australia and indeed the world faces increasing sophistication in scam activity through Artificial Intelligence and the industrialisation of criminal syndicates through scam compounds, it is clear more needs to be done, quickly and at scale,” she said.

Reported investment scams cost Australians $837.7m in 2025. The next most common types were payment redirection scams ($166.8m), romance scams ($139.9m), phishing scams ($97.6m) and remote access scams ($69.9m).

“It’s also important to note that the actions demonstrated in the report are made possible because Australians took the time to share their experiences,” Ms Lowe said.

“Without people speaking up, we simply wouldn’t have the insights needed to track and disrupt scam activity.”

The report released on Monday uses data from the ACCC, Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, independent not-for-profit IDCARE and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

For 2025, these agencies received 481,523 scam reports; 57 per cent of these cost people money, with $2.18bn in losses. Despite the dip since 2022, the average financial loss per report has gone up 7.8 per cent.

People aged over 65 make up about 17 per cent of the population, but this cohort represented 26.5 per cent of total scam losses.

Text messages scams also decreased significantly, down about 62 per cent to 29,058.