Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) pulled nearly 6,000 fraudulent websites offline in three months as fresh data confirmed that digitally delivered fraud remains the most financially damaging scam vector for Australian consumers – posing continued exposure risks for insurers and financial services firms operating in the market.
Scam activity originating from online sources continued to outpace other contact methods in the first quarter of 2026 (Q1 2026), with Australians losing $38.3 million to scams that began through digital contact between January and March, according to data released by the NASC on June 5, 2026. Fake websites, social media profiles, online advertisements, and mobile applications collectively accounted for roughly half of all losses reported to Scamwatch during the period – a pattern consistent with the trajectory observed throughout 2025, when online-based scam losses rose 21% year-on-year.
Scamwatch logged 45,816 reports in the first three months of 2026, a 17.8% drop from the same period in 2025. Of those, 6,775 were accompanied by a financial loss, with total losses reaching $76.7 million – down 17% from the prior year’s comparable quarter. Law enforcement channel ReportCyber recorded 15,391 scam-related reports carrying $187.7 million in losses over the same period. Stripping out duplicates, the two platforms combined for 60,657 reports and $248.3 million in losses. Investment scams led all categories in reported losses at $45.5 million for the quarter, while relationship scam losses climbed to $7.5 million. Phishing generated 13,428 Scamwatch reports, making it among the most frequently reported scam types. Email was the most commonly cited contact method, with 16,759 reports.
The NASC took down 5,834 scam websites during the first quarter of 2026. Among those, 1,960 were fake online gambling sites, which were also flagged to Google for advertisement removal across its platforms, including YouTube. A further 511 Facebook advertisements, profiles, and groups were referred to Meta for review. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe pointed to the dual significance of the takedown volume. “Online platforms give scammers the ability to reach large numbers of people quickly, cheaply, and convincingly. Disrupting scam websites is one of the ways we can make it harder for criminals to reach Australians online. The takedown of thousands of scam websites in just three months shows both the scale of scam activity online and the scale of the disruption work underway,” Lowe said.
The NASC said it is continuing to work with digital platforms and other partners to identify scam activity at an earlier stage and limit the window during which fraudulent content remains accessible to potential victims. Lowe also addressed the growing difficulty consumers face in distinguishing fraudulent content from legitimate material. “Scammers are increasingly using polished and professional-looking online content to appear legitimate, which can make it more difficult for Australians to spot a scam. Consumers should be cautious if a website or advertisement creates urgency, promises high returns, or asks for payment or personal information upfront,” Lowe said.
Despite the quarterly decline in both reports and losses, the NASC stopped short of characterising the data as evidence of a sustained reversal. “We welcome any decline in losses experienced by consumers and consider that ongoing efforts by governments, regulators, law enforcement, and industry are having an impact. That said, we caution against drawing too much from one quarter of data as reports and losses typically move around somewhat. We will continue to monitor closely to see whether this quarter’s data represents the beginning of a trend,” Lowe said. Bank-reported losses, which form a separate and significant data stream, were not broken out for the quarterly figures but are understood to reflect a comparable decline, according to the NASC.
The first-quarter 2026 results sit against a broader 2025 landscape in which total reported scam losses across Australia reached $2.18 billion – a 7.8% rise from 2024 – according to the NASC’s Targeting Scams Report, published March 30, 2026. The combined figure draws on data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), across 481,523 total reports.
Online scams were an escalating concern throughout the full year. The volume of online-based scam reports involving a financial loss grew by 31.8% in 2025, and the NASC referred more than 7,000 suspected Facebook scam URLs to Meta over the course of the year. More than 8,400 websites were assessed for removal, resulting in over 7,500 URLs being taken down – at least 30% more than in 2024. For the full year, investment scams accounted for the largest share of losses at $837.7 million, followed by payment redirection scams at $166.8 million, romance scams at $139.9 million, phishing scams at $97.6 million, and remote access scams at $69.9 million. Those five categories combined for 60% of total 2025 losses.
Lowe described the challenge as one requiring sustained, coordinated effort across multiple sectors. “Scams are often described as a ‘wicked problem’ because they are complex, fast-evolving, and resistant to simple solutions. As Australia and indeed the world faces increasing sophistication in scam activity through artificial intelligence and the industrialisation of criminal syndicates through scam compounds, it is clear more needs to be done, quickly and at scale,” Lowe said. The NASC said cross-sector coordination will remain central to its approach, including work being carried out under the Scams Prevention Framework.
