Text scam reports collapsed 62% while losses went up
Australian text-message scam reports fell from 77,365 in 2024 to 29,058 in 2025 — a 62.4% collapse that the National Anti-Scam Centre attributes to disruption across the ecosystem. Losses through the same channel went the other way, rising from A$14.0 million to A$17.9 million, driven by high-value losses in job, investment and phishing scams. Blocking is working on volume and not on harm.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- Australia, United States
- Outcome
- Ongoing
- Reported loss
- $11.6 million
- Victims
- 1,603
- Schemes
- Toll and delivery texts, Phishing and smishing, Wrong number texts
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- Australian text-message scam reports to Scamwatch: 77,365 in 2024, 29,058 in 2025 — a fall of 62.4%.
- Australian losses via text message rose from A$14.0 million in 2024 to A$17,977,491 in 2025.
- 1,603 Australians reported a financial loss where contact was by text message in 2025.
- The National Anti-Scam Centre attributes the fall in reports to improved disruption action across the ecosystem.
- It attributes the rise in losses to several high-value losses in job and employment scams, investment scams and phishing.
- US context: 164,634 unsolicited text message reports to the FTC in 2024, and 246,784 fraud reports where the contact method was text, with $470 million in losses.
- The FTC recorded a $1,000 median loss for text-initiated fraud — higher than email, at $600, and lower than phone calls, at $1,500.
Why this case matters
A 62% fall in reports in one year is the largest single-year drop in any category on this site, and it looks like a straightforward success story until you read the second line.
Losses rose. From A$14.0 million to A$18.0 million, through a channel carrying less than 40% of the previous year’s reported volume.
What is actually happening
The National Anti-Scam Centre attributes the drop in reports to disruption work across the ecosystem — mobile networks blocking messages, sender-ID registration schemes, filtering at the handset. That plausibly explains why fewer generic toll and delivery texts arrive.
It also explains why the ones that do get through are worth more. Generic mass texts are the cheapest to send and the easiest to block. What survives the filters is more targeted, and the NASC attributes the loss increase specifically to high-value losses in job scams, investment scams and phishing — which are the text messages that lead somewhere substantial rather than to a $3 redelivery fee.
The reporting caveat, honestly
Some of the report decline is people no longer bothering to report texts they recognised and deleted. A scam text is now such a routine annoyance that reporting one feels pointless.
That would deflate the count without anything changing in the world. It would not, however, inflate the dollars.
What it tells you about the scheme
The useful conclusion is about what network-level defences can and cannot do. They are demonstrably good at volume — 48,000 fewer reported scam texts in a year is real. They are not addressing harm, because harm has concentrated in the messages that look like something specific to you.
For a reader, that means the old heuristic is failing in a particular direction. “I get these all the time and I ignore them” was reasonable advice about a flood of obvious junk. The flood is receding, and what remains is better.
Sources
- Targeting scams: report of the National Anti-Scam Centre on scams data and activity 2025. National Anti-Scam Centre (ACCC), Australia. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The fall from 77,365 to 29,058 reports, the rise to A$17,977,491 in losses, the 1,603 loss reports, and both attributions.
- Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: 164,634 unsolicited text reports, 246,784 text-contact fraud reports, $470m in losses and the $1,000 median.
- 2025 Internet Crime Report. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: US phishing and spoofing complaint and loss totals, the category covering toll and delivery texts.