When Will We Learn Not to Part so Easily With Our Money?
20th October 2012
Figures just released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put the combined cost of a variety of fraud scams to the 12 months to March 2011 at $85 million dollars, up a whopping 35 per cent over the previous year.
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) chief executive Chris Chapman said half of the 10,000 complaints it received in 2011 related to phone scams.
"That was just the tip of the iceberg," Chapman said during a press conference at the US Federal Trade Commission.
The companies posed as legitimate security outfits including Microsoft, McAfee, and Symantec, and purchased Google keyword advertising against the company names in efforts to trap victims. Each attempted to fleece between $50 and $450 from victims to have false security threats removed.
Figures released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put the combined cost of a variety of fraud scams to the 12 months to March 2011 at $85 million dollars, up a whopping 35 per cent over the previous year.