Around 5800 ‘scam websites’ removed by regulator

Harry Booth

5th Jun 2026

The National Anti-Scam Centre, a consumer protection agency run by the ACCC, has removed around 5800 websites from the internet, laying bare the full scale of online scams in Australia.

According to the ACCC, the centre’s Scamwatch program received 45,816 scam reports in the first three months of the year, 6775 of which included a financial loss. While this was a 17.8 per cent drop in reported incidents from the previous year, the commission warned of the dangers posed by online scams.

“Online platforms give scammers the ability to reach large numbers of people quickly, cheaply and convincingly,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.

“Disrupting scam websites is one of the ways we can make it harder for criminals to reach Australians online.”

When combining Scamwatch’s reports with Report Cyber, a separate entity that records reports to law enforcement, the ACCC says there have been 60,657 scam reports, with reported losses of $248.3 million in the first three months of the year.

The National Anti-Scam Centre responded to this by removing 5834 scam websites, including 1960 fake online gambling websites.

“The takedown of thousands of scam websites in just three months shows both the scale of scam activity online and the scale of the disruption work underway,” Lowe added.

“The National Anti-Scam Centre is continuing to work with platforms and other partners to detect scam activity earlier and make it harder for scammers to operate across digital platforms,” Lowe said.

The centre said it also referred 511 Facebook advertisements, profiles and groups to Meta for investigation as part of its efforts to disrupt scam activity across digital platforms.