Key Trends in Employment Scams in Australia: What are the Gaps in Knowledge about Recruitment Fraud?

Fraud is defined as using lying, cheating and deception to gain a financial advantage. There are many categories of fraud. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) monitors a range of fraudulent activities through its ScamWatch portal. Individuals are encouraged to self-report experiences of fraudulent activity to ScamWatch to assist the ACCC to monitor trends and identify ways of disrupting identified scams. One of the key categories of fraud monitored by the ACCC relates to jobs and employment scams, otherwise known as recruitment fraud. Recruitment fraud uses the guise of a genuine job opportunity to lure potential victims to directly pay fees or to share sensitive personal information, such as driver’s licence, bank account or passport details. Victims of employment scams expose themselves to a range of consequences, including fraud, identity theft and money laundering. This briefing paper analyses data sourced from the ScamWatch Jobs and Employment Scams Statistics to identify trends in recruitment fraud in Australia.