CANBERRA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Over 3 million Australians experienced personal fraud in 2024-25, with credit card fraud accounting for more than 70 percent of incidents, according to official data on Thursday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that an estimated 3.2 million Australians, or around 15 percent of the population aged 15 and older, experienced fraud in the financial year 2024-25.
It said that card fraud was the most common type of personal fraud, affecting 10.4 percent of Australians aged 15 and over, up from 9.9 percent in 2023-24 and 5.9 percent in 2014-15.
"The number of Australians experiencing card fraud has doubled over the past decade, increasing from 1.1 million in 2014-15 to 2.3 million in 2024-25," William Milne, head of crime statistics at the ABS, said in a media release.
The card fraud victimization rate in 2024-25 was highest for people aged 45-64 at 13.4 percent and lowest for those aged 15-24 at 5.4 percent.
Total financial losses from card fraud hit 2.2 billion Australian dollars (about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars), but 71.9 percent of victims received a full reimbursement.
The national scam victimization rate fell from 3.1 percent in 2023-24 to 2.7 percent in 2024-25, which the ABS said was driven by a fall in identity request or phishing scam victims. ■
