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    Credit Card Fraud Statistics in Australia

    FintechFetchBy No Comments4 Mins Read


    Ever wondered how prevalent credit card fraud really is in Australia? Or which age groups are most at risk? To get to the bottom of these questions, we’ve gone straight to the source: the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

    The ABS provides a wealth of data on fraud victimisation, but it can be hard to understand the story behind the numbers. So let’s dissect their latest release: from state-by-state comparisons to the impact on different demographics, we’ll reveal the hard numbers behind credit card fraud. The best thing is all this data is backed by the authority of the ABS.

    On first thought, it’s easy to assume that credit card fraud affects everyone equally. The ABS data suggests that’s not necessarily the case. When we examine the numbers by gender, we start to see some interesting differences. Males are sitting at 7.8% of the population, with females at 9.5%. But what do these percentages mean in number form? Let’s take a closer look.

    🚨 Card Fraud Experience 💳

    Experienced Fraud 😭

    Gender Count
    Males ♂️ 799,000
    Females ♀️ 1,005,700
    Total 📊 1,807,200

    Did Not Experience Fraud 👍

    Gender Count
    Males ♂️ 9,428,200
    Females ♀️ 9,615,200
    Total 📊 19,040,700

    When we look at those slices of the pie, there’s a very close gap. It paints the slight difference in the percentage breakdown of male and female victims.

    Beyond the gender breakdown the ABS data also provides valuable insights into how card fraud victimisation varies across different Australian states. One key observation when looking at the state data is the strong correlation between population and reported card fraud incidents. The numbers scale with population which means larger states report more cases. Either way, there are still some interesting variations to explore.

    🚨 Reported vs. Experienced Fraud (Australia) 🇦🇺

    Region Reported Fraud Experienced Fraud All Persons
    New South Wales 566,100 577,300 6,567,100
    Victoria 476,600 486,500 5,389,800
    Queensland 372,400 384,800 4,241,000
    South Australia 108,900 110,900 1,477,500
    Western Australia 150,900 161,000 2,211,400
    Tasmania 34,300 35,200 466,300
    Northern Territory 12,800 13,400 149,500
    Australian Capital Territory 37,700 37,900 357,900
    Australia 1,764,000 1,807,200 20,860,100

    The ABS data also allows us to follow the rising trend of credit card fraud over the last few years. The following graphs focuses on the time span from 2014-15 to 2022-23. We can see how the number of reported incidents has changed across Australia’s states and territories. Several economic and social factors could explain the upward trend in credit card fraud. The increase in online shopping accelerated by COVID-19 may have presented more opportunities for fraud. It’s interesting to note that Western Australia saw a decline in scams, which is refreshing to see!

    Bad actors are also employing advanced techniques such as AI-powered phishing and “deepfake” scams blurring the reality between scam and reality. These are making it much harder for consumers and financial institutions to detect and prevent fraud. This increased sophistication likely plays a significant role in the growth in reported incidents.