One in ten Australians have fallen victim to fraud involving credit, debit, and EFTPOS cards, latest yearly data shows.
And rates of card fraud and scams have risen sharply, with fraudsters stealing billions of dollars, the Australian Bureau of Statistics' personal fraud survey found.
Consumer advocates say the figures reveal "a stark picture that is getting even worse" and the next federal government must take urgent action to address the growth in scams.
Card fraud affected 9.9% of Australians in 2023-24, increasing from 8.7% in the previous year, while the number of people who engaged with scammers also rose significantly to 675,300 people, up from 514,300.
William Milne, the bureau's head of crime statistics, said 72% of card fraud victims were fully reimbursed by their card issuer, with the gross amount stolen totalling $2.1 billion.
"Collectively, the net loss to all victims after any reimbursements were paid out was $477 million," he said.
Buying or selling scams, which includes practices such as false billing and online shopping scams, were the most common form of scams, experienced by about 308,000 people.
This was up from the 200,000 victims in the previous financial year, Mr Milne said.
Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Stephanie Tonkin said the data showed a stark picture that was getting even worse, with hundreds of thousands of victims being robbed in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
"This troubling data shows we are not out of the woods when it comes to scams and fraud, and what concerns me is the artificial distinction between victims of fraud and scams," she said.
While most banks reimbursed fraud victims, people who were scammed - tricked into authorising payment to a criminal - had been treated like second-class citizens, reimbursed a paltry 5% per cent or less, she said.
The next government must make tackling scams an urgent priority and designate the banking, telco and digital platform sectors under the Scams Prevention Framework, Ms Tonkin said.
A code of practice must be developed to focus on the rights of scam victims and their need for a simple and quick path to redress and compensation, she said.
