More than $1.5 million of farmers' hard-earned cash was lost in 2021 as a result of scams targeting the agricultural industry.
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The alarming figure was revealed in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Targeting Scams report, released today.
According to the ACCC, the most common scam was fake online sales for heavy machinery and tractors.
Scamwatch received 313 reports about the sale of tractors and agricultural machinery, with $1.4m lost.
ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said there was a more than 25 per cent increase in agricultural scams between 2020 and 2021.
"There were more scams last year involving heavy vehicles like tractors where farmers pay for them but they never arrive," Ms Rickard said.
"Machinery advertised well below market value is a warning sign it's a scam."
Farmers aren't faring much better this year, with Australian Community Media reporting $520,000 has already been lost as a result of these scams over the past six months.
Farmers weren't the only victims though with 566,648 Australians reporting scams in 2021.
One third of victims do not report scams and while reported losses were almost $1.8m, estimated losses were more than $2 billion.
Losses steadily increased with age, with people aged 65 and over reporting the highest losses.
More scams were reported by women than men, however men lost more money than women.
In fact, men's losses to investment scams were double women's losses.
The highest loss category in 2021 was investment scams with $701m lost, an increase of 169 per cent on the year prior.
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Payment redirection scams robbed Aussies of $227m while $142m was lost to romance scams.
Ms Rickard said a record number of Australians lost a record amount of money last year and scam activity was continuing to increase.
She said the ACCC had seen a marked decline in some of the older, low-end scams and an enormous increase in more sophisticated 'white-collar' fraud, such as cryptocurrency investment scams.
"Scammers are the most opportunistic of all criminals: they pose as charities after a natural disaster, health departments during a pandemic, and love interests every day," Ms Rickard said.
"The true cost of scams is more than a dollar figure as they also cause serious emotional harm to individuals, families, and businesses."
Data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, and other government agencies is used to compile the Targeting Scams report each year.
People who come across a scam, regardless of whether or not they have lost money to it, can report it at scamwatch.gov.au.
