Cyber-crimes and frauds in Australia

This paper discusses the impact of cyber-crimes and frauds in Australia, including the rise in investment scams and the initiatives taken by the government to combat cybercrime. It also covers recent cases of cyber fraud and the consequences of cyber-attacks on businesses. Desklib offers access to solved assignments, essays, and dissertations on this topic.

Cyber-crime and frauds

Cyber-crime and frauds
“Cyber-crimes and frauds in Australia”
In the present scenario, cyber-crimes and frauds are enhanced and it is impacting the overall
activities in a negative manner. So, in this paper the discussion will be made on the topic “Cyber-
crimes and frauds in Australia”.
Cybercrime in Australia has been enhanced by more than a quarter in 2017 and it is the second
highest rate of growth among various countries. Approximately, 53 security breaches were
experienced by the Australian business. In Australia, it has been examined that government
announced a $230m cyber security strategy which consist of cash for the specialist cybercrime
officers in the Australian crime commission (Keogh, Gordon and Marinovic, 2018).
The cyber-crime costs more than $1bn a year in Australia and the loss due to cyber-attack can be
approximately 1% of the GDP over the entire year. One of the costly attacks which consist of
malicious insiders, phishing and social engineering the overall attack cost approximately
$100,000 and now the businesses are emphasizing on spending on the overall costs of security
detection (Mikolic-Torreira et al., 2017). The expensive consequences of the Cyber-attacks took
place in Australia were business disruption and information loss. According to the research, there
are 24% Australian businesses who have implemented Al and 32% have introduced analytics
into their overall process of cyber- security (Broadhurst, 2017).
One of the latest news related to cyber fraud is online scam in which one Nigerian man has been
accused of running email scam in Sydney. There are four people in the group and they were
arrested by the police commission in Australia. Police stated that there was a 43 year old man
who was the leader and uses 16 mobile phones and 17 different SIM Cards to do scam form
inside the Villawood detention center (News.com, 2019). The syndicate was engaged in many
fraudulent activities related to romance scams, identity theft and also business email frauds and
they are defrauding with more than $3 Million Australians. They used the emotions and feelings
of the Australian people and conducted this scam by collecting their personal details. The group
of people also said that they were working with the international law enforcement colleagues to
earn more money. So, the Nigerian man was arrested in relation to the scam of using the
information of the people and also they have taken money from the Australian citizens. On
October 2, Det Supt Katsogiannis urged the people of Australia be careful at the time of giving
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Cyber-crime and frauds
their personal information online. It has been also observed that these types of scams impact the
emotional and financial status of the people (News.com, 2019).
According to the research done by Scam-watch, it has been analyzed that there is rise in the
losses which took place due to the investment scams in 2018. Scam- watch is considered as the
body operated by the Australian competition and consumer commission (ACCC) and they have
published the new statics in relation to the frauds and cybercrimes enhancing in the Australian
market. It has been analyzed that in 2018, there were approximately 3,508 reports in relation to
the investment scams and also the loss which took place was approximately $38.85 Million. The
majority of the reports were also submitted by the people who are in the age of 25 to 34 years
(Nikolova, 2019).
(Source: Nikolova, 2019).
According to Scam- watch the bulk of investment was done through phone and online sources
like internet or emails. Out of 10 scams stated in the picture, it has been analyzed that the ratio of
investment scheme scams were more and also it has one of the major portion of the amount lost
by the Australian. The amount which was lost by the citizens was approximately $6 Million in
investment frauds. In 208, it can be noted that Australian reported for $11,033,635 lost due to
various fraudulent activities schemes in the February 2018 and investment scam was on the top
of the list. The data in the picture stated that half loss was just because if the investment scams
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Cyber-crime and frauds
and the loss was of approximately $5,005,307 and also it has been stated that the loss has been
enhanced by 8.7% in February if it is compared with January (Nikolova, 2019).
In the recent cases, it has been examined that on 14 April, 2018, the SEC charged Kirbyjon
Caldwell based in Houston and also Greg Smith who was the financial planner. In this the scam
was conducted by them through online platform where they engage the innocent individuals into
investing in the old Chinese bonds that have no value and also they promise that they will get
higher returns. The 24 years investors were indulged in this case and they swindled out 3.4
Million. So, these people were prisoned for 30 years and also the fine charged from them was
approximately $1Million (Michael, 2019).
Also, one of the investment crimes which were on the top is related with Crypto-currencies. In
this context, it has been observed that people were scammed through fake bit- coin websites
(Lee, 2018). The average amount which was lost is no more but it is around $300. Also, for this
scam the Australian regulators warned about the Bit-coin fraud. In October, 2018 the Australian
communications and media authority (ACMA) warned the public scams who are targeting the
people who use the Crypto currencies like BITCOIN and ETHEREUM. The authority also stated
that there were number of fake block-chain URL’S and BITCOIN survey were done that can
gather the personal data of the individuals (Nikolovo, 2018).
According to the recent case which took place on October, 2018. The case was related to the
scam done through Bit-coin. In this it has been examined that scammers conned approximately
$50,000 from the regular Australian and they used the fake tax debt fraud. There are many
victims who have been engaged in paying off the non-existent debt through Bit-coin ATM’s. In
this scam, the scammers call the people and tell them that they have good tax debt and if they do
not pay it by using the BITCOIN ATM in Bray-Brook then they will be jailed. The victims
could withdraw the savings from the bank accounts and can travel to the Brabryook’s Bit- coin
ATM and can easily pay off their fake debt to the Specified bit-coin account. According to the
police commission of the Australia, the scheme targeted only the vulnerable individuals who
were easily convinced that their status of immigration will be threatened (Nikolovo, 2018).
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Cyber-crime and frauds
(Source: Nikolovo, 2018).
By analyzing the case, the authorities urged people to be careful at the time of getting the phone
calls from the institutions. They should double check and should contact the relevant companies.
Also Sergeant Lehpamer said “the person who gets the calls along with the lines should discuss
the case with the relevant authority before paying the amount or giving their personal bank
details over the phone to anyone (Nikolovo, 2018).
To prevent the individuals from the online crime the AFP was made so that prevention can be
made of the Australians who are becoming victims of the online crime. It empowers them to
consider the use of technology in a safe and proper manner. THINKUKnow is one of the cyber
safety program in which the main motive is to educate and enhance the awareness of the people
who are suing the technology and also it helps to overcome the challenges which are faced due to
online platform. ThinkUKnow Australia has a partnership with Australian Federal Police,
Microsoft Australia and also with Commonwealth bank. They collaborate with the policing
partners that are New South Wales Police Force and also South Australia Police (AFP, 2019).
To manage the issue related with the overall cybercrime and frauds, the Australian authorities
focused on Australian Cybercrime Online reporting network. This network is considered as a
national policing initiative of the commonwealth, state and territory governments. This is
considered as the national online system through which it can be easy for the people to report the
issues related to cybercrimes. It also offers advice to the individuals to recognize and to avoid the
popular types of crimes which exist in market (Criminal intelligence commission, 2019).
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Cyber-crime and frauds
ACORN has also considered the initiative under the National plan to combat cybercrime. It
focuses on setting up the agencies by working together with the aim of removing the criminals of
cyber world. The ACORN has made simple to report the issue related to Cybercrime and also
they offer the information to the citizens to avoid the common forms of the cybercrime like
hacking, online scams, identity theft and also online frauds. The Australians have the platform to
report the issue in an easy manner by taking help from ACORN (Criminal intelligence
commission, 2019).
Therefore, it can be concluded that it is important to resolve the issue related to cyber-crime as it
impacts the living standard of the individual. In Australia, the ratio of Cyber Crime is enhancing
and to control this it is important for the government to take effective measures so that people
can be aware about the cases. So, Australian government focused on introducing Australian
Cybercrime Online reporting network and also partnered with the concept of ACORN so that it
can be easy to reduce the issue related to Cyber-crimes.
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Cyber-crime and frauds
References
AFP, 2019.crime prevention. [Online]. Available at: https://www.afp.gov.au/what-we-do/crime-
types/cyber-crime/crime-prevention. [Accessed on 29 January 2019].
Broadhurst, R., 2017. Cybercrime in Australia. In The Palgrave Handbook of Australian and
New Zealand Criminology, Crime and Justice (pp. 221-235). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Criminal intelligence commission, 2019. Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network.
[Online]. Available at: https://www.acic.gov.au/our-services/australian-cybercrime-online-
reporting-network [Accessed on 29 January 2019].
Keogh, K., Gordon, C. and Marinovic, P., 2018. Cyber security: Global developments in cyber
security law: is Australia keeping pace?. LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal, 80(42), p.82.
Lee, M., 2018. Crime and the Cyber Periphery: Criminological Theory Beyond Time and Space.
In The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South (pp. 223-244). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Michael,M., 2019. The most notable - and expensive - financial fraud cases of all time [Online].
Available at: https://www.businessinsider.in/The-most-notable-and-expensive-financial-fraud-
cases-of-all-time/articleshow/63788263.cms. [Accessed on 29 January 2019].
Mikolic-Torreira, I., Snyder, D., Price, M., Shlapak, D., Beaghley, S., Bishop, M., Harting, S.,
Oberholtzer, J., Pettyjohn, S., Weinbaum, C. and Westerman, E., 2017. Exploring Cyber Security
Policy Options in Australia. RAND.
News.com, 2019. Four charged over allegedly running a multimillion-dollar online scam in
Australia. [Online]. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/four-
charged-over-allegedly-running-a-multimilliondollar-online-scam-in-australia/news-story/
1016ce1c7576716f5198eeb3c7fe448e. [Accessed on 29 January 2019].
Nikolova,M., 2019. Australian losses due to investment fraud top $38.8m in 2018. [Online].
Available at: https://financefeeds.com/australian-losses-due-investment-fraud-top-38-8m-2018/.
[Accessed on 29 January 2019].
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Nikolovo,M., 2018. Investment fraud costs more than $5 million to Australians in Feb 2018 –
Scamwatch [Online]. Available at: https://financefeeds.com/investment-fraud-costs-5-million-
australians-feb-2018-scamwatch/. [Accessed on 29 January 2019].
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