Challenges of responding to online fraud victimisation in Australia

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012: np) categorises personal fraud as being either identity fraud or a consumer scam. A consumer scam is a fraudulent invitation, request, notification or offer, designed to obtain someone's personal information or money, or otherwise obtain a financial benefit by deceptive means. Identity fraud involves the theft of an individual's personal details without their consent and includes both identity theft and credit or bank card fraud (ABS 2012: np). For the purposes of this paper, online fraud is defined as the experience of an individual who has responded via the internet to a dishonest invitation, request, notification or offer by providing personal information or money that has led to a financial or non-financial loss or impact of some kind. To fall within this definition, an individual must have received an unsolicited invitation via the internet and responded in some way that has led to a loss or other negative impact. While the loss need not necessarily be monetary in nature, cases in which individuals reply to fraudulent requests merely to solicit more information but without incurring a loss or other negative impact, are excluded from the current discussion.