By Wade Zaglas For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 23:51 GMT, 18 February 2019 | Updated: 00:00 GMT, 19 February 2019
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More than 20,000 Australians have been scammed already this year – with almost $5million lost - according to a fraud watchdog.
In the month of January alone, Australians were scammed out of $4,991,491, with dating and romance scams accounting for a hefty $1million, Scamwatch said.
Investment scams were also costly ($926K) as were fake bills ($377K). Nigerian scams are still costing Australians dearly, with over $100,000 being lost.
While dating scams were the most common, investment scams and fake bills were common too
While phones are the most common way of receiving a scam (over 12,000 reports and $1.1million lost) the internet is far more costly (just over 1,000 reports but a total cost of $1.3million).
One of the most surprising parts of the latest snapshot were the age groups of the people affected.
Although
