Scams on the rise but scam related complaints significantly decline

Scams are on the rise but scam-related complaints have significantly decreased this year.

This was highlighted at the National Scams Awareness Week at Grand Pacific Hotel today.

The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission says they have received only 45 scam complaints so far this year, a sharp decline from 140 complaints in 2024 and 712 in 2023.

During the round-table discussion, a video presentation showed a study according to a report by Global Anti-Scam Alliance just last year where consumers worldwide lost an estimated USD$1.3 trillion, which represents 1 percent of global GDP.

The same report found that 25.5 percent of the global population have been exposed to scams and only 4 percent of the scammed victims were able to recover their losses.

Meanwhile Vodafone Fiji’s Head of e-commerce and Digital Financial Services, Shailendra Prasad stresses that there needs to be more education for people, raising concerns that people share their MPAiSA OTP with anyone without verifying.

He adds that Fijians are too trusting and trust anything that comes from a digital channel, whether a text message or a Facebook post.

Prasad urges the public to lock their Facebook accounts as pictures can be taken, screenshot and misused in many ways.

Consumer Council Chief Executive Officer, Seema Shandil says they have been aggressively involved in raising awareness, and they do a lot of community work, touch base with tertiary institutions and schools, and are now focusing on civil servants.

Shandil adds they have been doing a lot of advocacy work with different communities in semi-urban areas and rural areas, and also reaching out to many maritime areas.