Australian businesses lost $22.1 million to email scams in 2017

Summary

This blog post, "Australian businesses lost $22.1 million to email scams in 2017", is a blueAPACHE article from 2018 covering security. According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s ninth annual Targeting Scams Report, over 200,000 reports were submitted to the ACCC, Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) and other federal and state-based government agencies in 2017. It is written for readers evaluating emPOWER Security, Human Risk Management. The underlying security practice it describes, reducing attack surface and improving detection and response, is not tied to a specific product version and remains relevant to any organisation managing cyber risk today.

Key facts

Article

According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s ninth annual Targeting Scams Report, over 200,000 reports were submitted to the ACCC, Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) and other federal and state-based government agencies in 2017. Total losses reported were $340 million – a $40 million increase compared to 2016. Email phishing scams are considered to be the most used method of identity theft. This is where a scammers most commonly target an individual by sending them an email claiming to be from a bank or other such legitimate organisations, asking for access to personal accounts to carry misuse. Email scams alone have cost Australian businesses losses of $22.1 million, with email phishing had the largest number of reports, receiving a total of 26,386 reports, causing $800,000 in losses and a 5.6 per cent increase in the number of reports compared to 2016.

“It’s very worrying that Australians are losing such extraordinary amounts to scammers. Based on just the reports provided to the ACCC, victims are losing an average of $6500. In some cases people have lost more than $1 million,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.
In a previous email scam reported by ARN in 2017, a Brisbane business lost $1.9 million when the company was targeted in a cyberattack which saw malware access its systems in order to acquire the business client list. In this attack, the perpetrator accessed the invoice template the company issues to its customers and modified the account details. The invoice was then forwarded as an email to companies on the business’ client list. In 2017, ACCC received 5,432 scam reports from Australian businesses, with 60% of them delivered via email, and 85% via bank transfers. The ACCC reported Hacking as number 12 on the scams categories list with 5,757 reports and losses of $1.7 million. Malware and ransomware ranked number 13 with 4,412 reports and total losses of $239,000. The ACCC encourages individuals to report scams to the ACCC via the report a scam page to help warn and monitor trends. See how blueAPACHE can help with security with your business. We provide an always-on, inbound and outbound email security package, with protection against targeted attacks, spear phishing, advanced malware, spam and bulk mail. This includes data loss prevention technology and email encryption delivered from a global cloud platform to protect both your cloud and on-premise mailboxes. For more information, contact the blueAPACHE account team.

Source availability — checked 24 September 2026: An original arnnet.com.au source link is unavailable. Its historical attribution and article text are retained; no unverified replacement has been substituted.

Related

• emPOWER Security
• emPOWER Security (pillar hub)
• Human Risk Management
• emPOWER Cloud
• emPOWER Cloud (pillar hub)
• blueAPACHE Security (case study)

Frequently asked questions

What report does the article cite, and how many scam reports were submitted in 2017?

The ACCC's ninth annual Targeting Scams Report, which recorded over 200,000 reports submitted to the ACCC, the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) and other federal and state-based government agencies.

What were total reported scam losses in 2017, and how did they compare to 2016?

Total losses reported were $340 million, a $40 million increase compared to 2016.

How much did email scams alone cost Australian businesses, and what was the single largest scam-report category?

Email scams cost Australian businesses $22.1 million; email phishing had the largest number of reports at 26,386, causing $800,000 in losses, a 5.6 per cent increase on 2016.

What did ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard say about average and maximum individual losses?

Rickard said that based on reports to the ACCC, victims were losing an average of $6,500, with some people losing more than $1 million.

What example of a business email compromise attack does the article describe?

A Brisbane business lost $1.9 million after malware accessed its systems, letting attackers modify the account details on its invoice template before it was emailed to the company's client list.

What proportion of 2017 business scam reports were delivered via email and via bank transfer?

Of 5,432 scam reports received from Australian businesses in 2017, 60 per cent were delivered via email and 85 per cent involved bank transfers.

Where did hacking and malware/ransomware rank among the ACCC's scam categories, and what were the reported losses?

Hacking ranked 12th with 5,757 reports and $1.7 million in losses; malware and ransomware ranked 13th with 4,412 reports and $239,000 in losses.

What email security capabilities does the article say blueAPACHE provides?

An always-on, inbound and outbound email security package protecting against targeted attacks, spear phishing, advanced malware, spam and bulk mail, including data loss prevention and email encryption for both cloud and on-premise mailboxes.

Source

• origin post (2018)

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