This year, watch out for these new ways scammers will be trying to fleece consumers
Criminals may exploit confusion surrounding the teenage social media ban and prospective changes to interest rates to convince Australians to hand over their money
The growing popularity of sales events, sporting matches and live performances are also attracting criminals trying to make a buck
Australians reported $312 million worth of losses to Scamwatch last year.
That number is down slightly compared to the previous year, as scam awareness improves and businesses and governments introduce measures to crack down on online criminals.
But new laws, advances in technology, shifts in the economy and other changes impacting our lives are providing scammers with new avenues to exploit – and novel ways to do so.
We’ve put together a guide to some of the latest efforts from the world of scams to help you know what to look out for this year.
One of the biggest stories of last year was the federal government’s introduction of age limits on social media.
Since December 2025, popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have taken steps to prevent anyone under 16 from creating or holding an account.
Much of the coverage of this world-first initiative has focused on the impact on teens, but regulators are warning that criminals may take advantage of the upheaval to target all of us who use social media.
State and national bodies are warning that scammers may impersonate social media platforms, the federal government or police and claim you’re at risk of losing your account or being fined unless you share personal details or money to prove your age.
These phishing criminals may ask you to click a link to a fake website, provide your account username and password or upload sensitive identity documents to prove you’re old enough to be on social media.
Clicking on fake links can put your device at risk, while sensitive details like personal ID numbers can be used by scammers to steal money under your name.
Accounts for cash
Regulators say criminals may also contact young Australians and their families and offer to sell them fake IDs or access to age-verified accounts so they can avoid the ban.
The eSafety Commissioner says these operators are unlikely to ever provide what they’ve promised and warns they may try to develop an unsavory relationship with the teens they talk to.
Scammers may target children trying to get accounts on social media following the teen social media ban.
Hi Mum, revamped
There’s also a risk that scammers might use news of the ban to breathe new life into a well-worn phishing exercise.
The “Hi Mum” scam – where criminals contact people at random, claiming to be their children who are in need of help after losing their phone – has been a favourite ploy of scammers in recent years.
The eSafety Commissioner and the ACCC say Hi Mum operators may tweak their approach and pose as older teenagers or young adults accidentally caught up in the social media ban.
Their messages may claim parents have to click on a link or share copies of a child’s ID documents in order to verify their age and allow them to keep using social media.
How to avoid them
Ignore requests for payment: None of the platforms targeted by the ban are requesting payment as part of their compliance with the laws. Any demand to send money to secure your account is a scam.
Double-check suspicious messages: Don’t act on unexpected texts or emails. Avoid falling for the Hi Mum scam by contacting family members on a number you’ve used before or found yourself. Ignore offers to help teens circumnavigate the ban with fake IDs or access to a verified account.
Check platform information: Social media companies complying with the ban should provide info on how they’re verifying people’s ages. Check a platform’s website using a link you’ve found yourself. It should also say if it’s employing a third party to help with verification efforts.
The ACCC says shopping scams “surged” in 2025, becoming one of the most commonly reported cons of the year, while cyber security companies reported that the criminals running these schemes are expanding their methods to coincide with popular sales.
With events like Black Friday getting bigger every year and other perennial discounting periods like the End of Financial Year (EOFY) sales just around the corner, it’s likely we’ll see shopping scammers deploy more of their familiar cons in coming months.
Dodgy shopping sites
Look out for websites promising products at big discounts that are, in reality, phishing portals designed to steal your money and sensitive information.
Shoppers making orders through any of these sites are usually left waiting for products that never arrive, or find their purchases are poor-quality knock-offs.
Scammers know many of us will be shopping online in this year’s sales and will likely play on our eagerness to see our valuable packages delivered to us safe and sound.
Criminals often impersonate courier companies and send SMS messages urging you to click on links to secure upcoming parcel deliveries, arrange re-delivery or pay fees to receive a parcel.
These links often lead to pages designed to harvest your payment information or other sensitive details.
Note that scammers are currently still able to use technology to make it look like their SMS messages are coming from trusted delivery services like Australia Post, giving them an air of authenticity.
How to avoid them
Don’t click on suspicious sale links: Don’t click on unexpected links claiming to connect you with shopping deals. Look up the store online and click on the first non-sponsored search engine result.
Check that a branded website isn’t a dodgy copy: Avoid websites claiming to be major retailers that are offering suspiciously big discounts on all products or those that have an unusual URL and inconsistent supporting information.
Scrutinise a store’s “local” connections: Avoid retailers that claim to be a small local business, but can’t be found on any maps of the town where they claim to be based and say in their fine print that their products ship from overseas.
Double-check delivery demands: Don’t click on unexpected links demanding that you take action over a parcel delivery. Contact the company that is claiming to contact you independently using details you’ve sourced yourself to confirm any requests for information or money.
Flaming sky lanterns are banned in Australia, so avoid events claiming to provide these.
One in five Australians have missed out on an event due to fake or undelivered tickets, according to research by PayPal, with many losing significant amounts of money.
Scammers have been employing a mix of methods to carry out these thefts. These include selling tickets to wholly fake events, as well as the long-standing practice of selling fake tickets to real events like popular concerts and sports matches.
In September last year, Western Australian authorities warned consumers not to buy tickets for sky lantern festivals or drone shows around Perth that were being promoted on social media, revealing such events didn’t exist.
This came after authorities in South Australia urged fans of a local AFL team to be on the lookout after fake tickets were sold for hundreds of dollars by scammers looking to cash in on interest in the club following its strong performance.
Meanwhile, a New South Wales man was charged for allegedly being involved in a similar scheme where more than 100 fake passes were sold to a popular music festival.
How to avoid them
Know what’s possible: Open flame lanterns that float into the sky are illegal in Australia, so a local event based around these is highly implausible.
Be skeptical of secrecy: Beware of events advertised on social media whose promoters claim tickets and the exact location will only be issued 48 hours before the event.
Stick to official sources: Watch out for tickets to major events being sold through social media. Ticketing for events at big stadiums and arenas is usually controlled by a large ticket company, which would usually be the authorised reseller.
Compare prices: All states have some form of anti-scalping laws, which put a cap on how much a legitimate ticket reseller can charge. This cap is usually based on a percentage markup of the original price (usually 10%). Overcharging could be a sign of a scam, so compare what you’re being offered to the ticket’s original sale price.
The corporate regulator is warning anyone interested in investing this year to watch out for “pump and dump” schemes following a rise in reports of this type of scam in recent months.
A pump and dump is when people with a financial interest in a small company or obscure asset spread misleading rumors online in order to inflate the price of their investment.
Once their asset has been sufficiently “pumped,” these unscrupulous operators will “dump” (sell) their share for a profit. The following fall in the asset price often results in those who bought into the hype losing money.
Meanwhile, with inflation on the rise again, some market watchers expect the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates this year.
Such announcements often spur borrowers and savers to see where they could be getting a better deal, so scammers may use these times to spruik dodgy investment opportunities or fake loans.
How to avoid them
Be careful of buying into hype: A rush of advertising, influencer and celebrity endorsements or online forum comments telling you to invest in a particular company could be the beginning of a pump and dump scheme.
Follow up on communication: Your bank or other legitimate financial institutions shouldn’t contact you and create a sense of panic about your finances or advise you to make sudden changes. Verify any suspicious messages using contact details for the bank or institution you’ve found yourself.
Know the common red flags: Beware of suspicious schemes involving cryptocurrency or requiring you to download remote access software. Watch out for conversations on social media or messaging platforms that unexpectedly turn to investing.
Do your research: You should be able to find plenty of information about a legitimate investment company by searching online.
At the end of last year, NAB intervened to stop a customer from sending $100,000 to someone appearing to be Hollywood actor Kevin Costner.
Suspicious about the requested transfer, the bank says it discovered that the Kevin the customer had been talking to via video call was a copy created by scammers using AI – one so realistic it had convinced the customer she was speaking to the real actor and that he needed the money.
Scammers are likely to deploy more AI-generated clones to aid their efforts this year. Image: Meta
Mounting improvements in generative AI will be one of the consistent stories of this year and scam victim support organisation IDCare says it expects to see more cases of criminals taking advantage of these advances to better clone the voices and faces of individuals who can lend credibility to their schemes.
We’ve previously pointed out the devastating impacts of audio deepfakes used in phone-based scams, but combined with the latest visual cloning technology to create video messages, they now pose a greater threat.
How to spot them
Be realistic: A celebrity is unlikely to ever contact you asking for money. If the request is coming from someone you know, verify it by contacting the person using details you’ve used before or found yourself.
Check the source: See where the video came from. Official accounts of legitimate organisations or individuals are unlikely to create AI videos of themselves or their representatives.
Read their lips: The audio in an AI video may not always match the mouth movement of the person depicted. Watch for instances of dodgy lip-syncing.
Check if it looks too good: AI clones sometimes have an airbrushed, over-polished look. Check if the hair, lighting and skin tone looks believable. Beware of unnatural blinking or flickering around the eyes.
Look at the body parts: AI struggles with hands – if these appear in the video, check that they look realistic. Look also at faces for any unusual asymmetries.
Once more with feeling: Look for unusual facial expressions that don’t match the tone of what’s being said.
Liam Kennedy is a Journalist with the Editorial and investigations team. He answers consumers' most burning questions, from which scams to be aware of and how to save money, to whether new services and products are worth using and how the latest developments in consumer news could affect them.
Prior to CHOICE, Liam worked in production in daily news radio and podcasting.
Liam has a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology Sydney.
Find Liam on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Liam Kennedy is a Journalist with the Editorial and investigations team. He answers consumers' most burning questions, from which scams to be aware of and how to save money, to whether new services and products are worth using and how the latest developments in consumer news could affect them.
Prior to CHOICE, Liam worked in production in daily news radio and podcasting.
Liam has a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology Sydney.
Find Liam on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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