By Kat Wong in Canberra

Thousands of Australians have been swindled out of their money as the number of reported scams hit record highs.

Consumers and small businesses reported more than 10,000 scams in 2023/24, an 81 per cent increase from the year before, according to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s annual review released on Thursday.

While this spike in complaints was one of the most worrying trends in the past financial year, the authority’s chief ombudsman David Locke noted there had been a downturn in the last quarter that had continued into the new period.

“This is encouraging but definitely not a cause for complacency,” he said.

Anti-scam initiatives launched by the federal government and big banks appear to have helped dampen numbers.

“But there is still a long way to go,” Mr Locke said.

Of the more than 10,000 complaints the authority helped resolve where consumers were scammed out of money, seven in 10 were dealt with in 60 days.

The review also found more Australians are facing financial difficulties, with the number of complaints stemming from the issue rising by 18 per cent driven by concerns relating to home, personal and credit card lending.

Many of these relate to poor treatment or ineffective communication during the hardship application process and Mr Locke says improvements are urgently needed.

“Over the past two years, consumers have faced a record level of premium growth in both car and home insurance,” he said.

“Despite this, we remain disappointed with the lack of action regarding appropriate resourcing, product design and the adoption of a resolution mindset.”