News Service from House Harris

Fed: Scams on the rise, ACCC warns

CANBERRA, Nov 21 AAP - Tis the season for scams, or so it seems.

The national competition regulator is warning Australians about a spike in the number of scams being offered to the unwary in response to the global financial crisis.

And the warnings are backed up with some blunt advice - money lost to frauds may be irretrievable.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has an online monitoring service called SCAMwatch, which it uses to alert consumers about scams.

On the website, www.scamwatch.gov.au, there are a dozen broad-based categories that alert consumers to more than 40 known scams, ranging from fake lottery prizes to miracle cures and that magic fat-blasting pill.

One is known as the Nigerian 419 scam, in which people are emailed pleas from a bogus Third World refugee requesting money to help them access a larger inheritance.

Victims are encouraged to report new scams to the ACCC through the SCAMwatch site, which is updated regularly..

"These scammers, they come, they go," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said on Friday.

Once money had been handed over, it was virtually impossible to get it back, he said.

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