Not surprising, they pay more for goods as well.
Internet fraud still stings suckers
Australians fell prey to online scams to the tune of around $AUD93.5 million in 2012, and reported nearly 84,000 “scam-related contacts” to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The Commission has just released the results of its 2012 report on scam activity, published as part of Australia's National …
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 07:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Not gullible
Imagine a person, who has never seen a mobile phone, seen a television, transport pulled by anything other than a horse, electricity, the light bulb etc, an aeroplane...
Imagine the look on that persons face as he discovers these things for the first time...
Well that's the 'Aussie Look' when they use technology.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 03:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Impossible
No one is dumber than many Americans who are online. You can sell them ocean front property in Arizona while they are sending thousands of dollars to some long lost relative who is stuck in a foreign country and needs some money to get back home. It's just amazing how dumb people really are.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 04:05 GMT Thorne
Re: More Gullible?
More people per head of population falling for these scams.
Personally I wonder the break up of stupid scams verses sneaky scams (Nigerian dictator vrs Westpac email)
I see a lot of emails pretending to be Telstra, Westpac, CommBank etc. I wonder how many Australians fall for these as opposed to distant relative dying and leaving you millions.
We Australian have a smaller banking group so it's an easier target than US banks.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 04:41 GMT Winkypop
Had the bog-standard phone scammer just last night
They were so adamant that I had a Windows PC, they insisted I did. I said I didn't have any PC, she said (almost screamed) "You are a liar!"
I asked her if she knew she was scamming people or whether she was just a phone-drone. She was very upset by this and said that I was a liar again, ergo: she was in on it.
I suggested that ringing people up and calling them a liar wasn't the best strategy.
I politely recommended that she call her employer a bastard, ....she hung up.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 11:11 GMT Graham Marsden
Re: Had the bog-standard phone scammer just last night
I like saying "Does your mother know what you do for a living? Do you say 'Hi, mum, I've got a job as a scammer and a thief and I like to con people out of money'? Do you think she'll be proud of you and say to her friends 'My child is a crook!'? Hello...? Helloooo.....!" :-)'
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 05:04 GMT Shannon Jacobs
Hello! I'm a criminal going to rob you! Here's my email address!
Doesn't this kind of thing amaze you? Isn't this the sort of problem that should have been solved many years ago? I'm a criminal, but just ignore me while I rob someone else!
Solution hint: Lots of people hate spam, but there are only a very few precious suckers who feed the spams.
Suggestion: Give us tools to get between the spammers and their victims. If a tiny percentage wanted to help, the suckers would be completely overwhelmed--and the spammers would get no money.
I'm not suggesting the spammers would become decent human beings. However if you cut off their money, they will move under other less visible rocks.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 05:52 GMT John Tserkezis
Re: Had the bog-standard phone scammer just last night
I play along as the dumb user and string them along as long as I can.
Then I ask them stupid questions (where's the "any" key) till they get the shits and hang up themselves.
I do the same with the religious nuts at the local shopping mall, if they see me again (they're there every sunday) they actively avoid me, knowing either they're not getting any money out of me, or I'm crazy - I'm OK with either. :-)
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 05:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Who's gullible?
We're far too quick to swallow these fantasy figures, banged out ten a penny by those who usually have an interest one way or another in them being either very large or very small. Do aussies really lose 93.5 million, or is that just hot air to justify a budget increase (in the UK a budget increase and an ongoing lack of action)? It's high time someone took a sample of these often unbelievable claims and gave them a proper audit. In the case of this announcement, I can imagine all sorts of reasons individuals reporting fraud would inflate the amounts taken.
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 12:56 GMT mark 63
me no good at math , please help
ok so 4AUD per person x 7bil is 28 billion . I agree
525billion USD \ 1/3 billion people is 1.66USD? I disagree
Theres a 3rd of a billion people in the US so to lose 525 billion between them i make it $175 each.
I fully accept i could be incorrect - i'd just like to know where
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Tuesday 18th June 2013 14:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
'Australians twice as gullible as Americans'
This surprises me if only because of the sheer amount of information on Americans that exists on the net. I don't know why but I've always been especially careful. ID theft has been around a long time and although I've never been a victim, I'm very conscious of it unlike some of my fellow countrymen. I'm a strong consumer advocate, so maybe that's it.
Anyway I recently found a host of my personal details on Pipl.com and other privacy scraping sites. It was a nasty surprise, as in one case the details included an old FB profile that was always non-public and had been deleted, and in a second case my name was tied to a PO Box address that had only ever been used for personal correspondence...
In the latter case the US Postal Service must have sold my details or disclosed them without asking me, which I didn't think they were allowed to do! In the former case FB must have had a leak i.e. exposed pages in an botched update, or deliberately exposed data for unknown reasons, as the account was never hacked and wasn't so easily crackable.
In general all my family and friends are clueless about their privacy. They give out their personal details all day long to anyone. With such a treasure trove of freely available data on the internet, it must be easy to orchestrate a targeted well thought out online scam, So personally I'm amazed Americans aren't hit hardest versus Australians.....
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Monday 1st July 2013 08:15 GMT Sentropi
Internet Fraud Protection Tips
The main objective behind Internet scams is easy and fast money. There are several types of white collar crimes such as scams, hoaxes, computer fraud, and identity thefts which have flooded the Internet. As an Internet user, it’s always wise to be aware of such fraudulent methods so as to avoid falling victim to them. The Internet has certainly opened up numerous communication and financial possibilities for people around the world. With the expansion of the Internet, Internet hoaxes and scams have also started to increase.
Internet Hoaxes: How to protect yourself against Internet hoaxes and scams.
Fraud: Internet fraud from OIT Website.
Domain Appraisal Scam: Learn about domain appraisal scams.
Beware of Internet Fraud: Provides legal advice on Internet fraud.
Internet Scams: What you should know about Internet scams.