This report marks 12 years of the ACCC’s annual Targeting Scams report. It explains key trends in scam activity and highlights the impact of scams on the community and provides insight into scam activity in 2020 – a year in which Australia faced a bushfire crisis and, along with the rest of the world, an unprecedented and disruptive pandemic (COVID-19). Scammers unfortunately took advantage of the global environment, which led to higher than usual financial and personal information loss. However, alongside the stories of resilience and innovation in the community during the bushfires and the pandemic, there also was an increased collaboration across government, law enforcement and the private sector in response to the complex challenges that arose in the fraud and scam landscape. This unprecedented collaboration and focus provide optimism that if built on, can increase the ACCC's resilience to make Australia a harder target for fraud and scam activity.
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