According to new research from Australia Post, Australians are more likely to receive a shipping or package delivery scam than any other scam, with 73% of respondents saying they have received fake delivery notifications.
The survey, which was conducted by Pollfish in April 2024 on a nationally represented sample of 1,495 Australians, revealed that more than a quarter (27%) of respondents admitted they had fallen victim to a scam, often resulting in a financial loss or identity theft. Of these, a small number (5%) reported they have lost more than A$20,000 (US$13,000) to scammers.
According to the report, an alarming 80% of Australians are receiving between one to 10 scam texts and calls every week, with 15% of people receiving 16 or more scam emails a week and about 4% receiving a similar number of fake texts and phone calls.
In light of the data, Australia Post is urging people to protect themselves as scams continue to increase and become more convincing. More than half (54%) of those surveyed revealed they had initially believed a fake delivery message was legitimate and pursued it before realizing the content was fraudulent.
Australia Post’s group chief executive and managing director, Paul Graham said, “Australians are losing billions of dollars to scams each year. Scam attempts are becoming more sophisticated, frequent and increasingly harder to detect and our latest research reveals that most of us have already been targeted.
“With many people being bombarded with fake texts, emails and calls the best way for customers to stay safe from scams is by using the free AusPost app, which tracks deliveries securely.”
Australia Post’s new research follows the latest report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which revealed Australians lost A$2.74bn (US$1.81bn) in 2023 and made over 601,000 scam reports, an 18.5% increase on 2022.