Scammers evolve: Australians trying to make extra money through side hustles or second jobs targeted

Money lost to scams is tracking in the right direction even as fraudsters prey on the cost-of-living crisis to target people looking for side hustles.

An 11 per cent fall in total scam losses was clocked over the March quarter, the National Anti-Scam Centre said in a report.

Most of the improvement was led by shrinking losses to investment scams.

Yet with a sizeable $73.2 million lost to fraudsters over the three months and a slight uptick in the number of scams reported to the government body from the quarter before, Australia is facing an uphill battle.

Scammers were starting to exploit the cost-of-living crisis, the report found, by deceiving social media users trying to make extra money through second jobs or side hustles.

By posing as department stores, hotels or other companies, scammers have been drawing users in with offers of good pay and flexibility, and then asking for small payments to complete tasks with the promise it will be paid back later.

Younger Australians of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds were most at risk to this increasingly-popular scams, the centre said in its report.

Social media scams overall continued their upward trend in the March quarter, lifting 11.8 per cent.

But progress was made on losses to scams circulating on the platforms, down 10.7 per cent, from $15.9 million in October to December last year to $14.2 million in January to March.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said the scam crackdown, including the creation of the National Anti-Scam Centre last year, was working.

“Scam losses are down first the first time in almost a decade since we released stage one of our strategy, but we have more to do,” he said.

The federal government has been consulting on mandatory industry codes that would require digital platforms, banks and telcos to curb scam risk or face penalties.

Mr Jones said the codes would set a high bar for the key sectors.