Figures released by the ACCC's ScamWatch to coincide with Scams Awareness Week, which begins on Sunday, showed 752 reports were made to the watchdog last year.

The most money was lost through remote access scams - where residents are told by a scammer pretending to be from a telecommunications company that they need software to fix a virus - with $47,000 forfeited.

The data also showed $12,000 was lost to threats to life scams and was the most reported scam in 2017, while just under $2000 was lost due to reclaim scams.

It seems Canberrans are sceptical of Nigerian princes, however, with just one report made during the last calendar year and no money lost.

An ACT government spokesman said Canberrans are being urged to look out for threat-based impersonation scams.

"In these scams, scammers might call or email you and pretend to be from a government agency or well-known, trusted business," the spokesman said.

"They then use threats to pressure or scare you into giving them your money or personal information."

At a national level, ScamWwatch said it received almost 33,000 reports of threat-based scams during last year.

More than $4.7 million was reported lost as a result, with more 2800 people giving up their personal information.

The government spokesman said there are many things that Canberrans can do to keep themselves safe from the threat of scammers.

"Ask yourself whether the person or business that's contacted you out of the blue is who they say they are. Verify the identity of the contact through an independent source. Don't use the contact details provided by the caller," the spokesman said.

"Know that a government agency or trusted business will never ask you to pay them with gift or store cards, iTunes cards, wire transfers or bitcoin."