Criminals are at it again, as one of the world’s most frustrating problems rears its head once more. If you thought scammers had gone away for a bit, think again.
More are around, and possibly targeting your finances with a bigger, loftier goal.
While the Sender ID registration might have put a dampener on their ability to trick and smish (phish over SMS) by pretending to be government, retail, and telco, cybercriminals are doubling down on going after potentially more lucrative targets: your super and bank accounts in their entirety.
That’s what recent research from Gen is revealing, as the company behind Norton’s security software notes that the colder months tend to see more financial scam attacks than the warmer months. It’s an increase of 105 percent, the company says, and cover a variety of scam approaches, includes cryptocurrency and investment scams.
As it is, the ACCC’s Scamwatch project has found over $60 million lost in investment scams this year already (2026), and we’re only halfway through, giving you an idea of just how aggressive scammers are in this category. Over $160 million was lost to investment scams last year, and financial scams can cover more than simply investment, with over two billion dollars lost to scams in 2025.
To do this, some of the tactics include using social engineering and tricking people into giving over their passwords, or even simply access to their social accounts. Once in, a scammer can run fake stories about how they’ve suddenly made it rich and act as a fake friend, convincing others to hand over money, transferring it into cryptocurrency and causes serious losses.
Other times, scammers have been using Facebook’s ad network with a literal interpretation of fake news to convince people to hand over their savings.
The results have been dire, and go beyond the basic scam emails many of us have dealt with over the years.
“These scams often create the illusion that ordinary Australians are making life-changing amounts of money through cryptocurrency, trading platforms or investment schemes,” said Dean Williams, Principal Systems Engineer for Norton.
“In reality, the social media account may have been compromised and the posts are being used to recruit new victims,” he said.
“Cybercriminals understand that trust is one of the most powerful tools they can exploit. When an investment opportunity appears to come from a friend, family member or trusted contact, people are far more likely to let their guard down.”
While the use of fake friends is hardly anything new, it is a continued sign that anyone with a social media account needs to pay close attention to what they press or click, especially with the risk of inadvertently becoming social media bait for other people.
Security software can assist, of course, but depending on the device you do most of your social media access on, some platforms may be particularly more prone than others.
Staying on guard against phishing attempts can be difficult, but is an important thing to consider, and largely consists of taking everything with a grain of salt and not automatically trusting it. Instead, question why a message came to you, if it’s legit, and if you’re not sure, simply don’t click.
If you’re not sure what something is, you may want to delete it and move on. Scammers typically employ urgency as regular tactic, attempting to disarm with the suggestion that something needs to be done immediately without a second thought.
Instead of simply responding, wait, and take the time to make sure other forms of security are engaged, such as multi-factor authentication and potentially passkeys if they’re supported.
Ultimately, choosing not to respond immediately while upgrading your security could just keep your account from being hacked, and in turn not being used as part of yet another finance scam, or yet another winter statistic.
