BUSY farmers and small agribusiness service providers are likely to be easy targets for what has become a growth industry in Australia in the past five years - cyber scamming.
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Billing frauds, fake email requests for information, dodgy investment scams and computer hacking incidents are among an array of activities reaping big money for keyboard criminals.
Based on reported incidents so far, Australians are expected to be electronically ripped off to the tune of about $530 million this year.
That figure is up from the $490m reported lost in 2018 - itself a $150m increase on 2017's known losses.
Cyber con artists and hackers, mostly operating offshore, cost their victims an average $6000 each last year.
At least 3000 small businesses lost more than $4.5m, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says.
Many of those impacted were small mum and dad enterprises, including farming operations, or companies with fewer than 20 staff.
Based on reports tallied by the ACCC in recent years, small and small-to-mid-sized businesses accounted for about two-thirds of the money lost to cyber scams targeting businesses.
Big businesses with more than 200 staff reported just 9 per cent of the $6.8 billion lost in the period.
"Farmers are not the only people who are busy and vulnerable, but their businesses are less likely to have the sort of skills and resources to protect themselves which a big ASX-listed outfit will employ to stop somebody hacking into their systems or monitor questionable emails," National Australia Bank regional customer executive Khan Horne said.
"Everybody needs to be aware of the risks and avoid making it easy for criminals to access information about you, or take money from you."
Scams were diverse in nature and randomly targeted all ages, although losses have trended higher among people aged 55 and older.
Investment scams and dating and romance sites have proven the most costly traps reported to the ACCC's Scamwatch and other agencies.
Last year Australian residents lost approximately $86m on fake investment opportunities offered online, with men being more likely to be the victims.
About $60m went down the drain to dud romance sites, where women were more prominent losers.
Scamwatch recorded more than $5m lost to fake billing scams, $3.2m to online shopping scams, $3.1m lost after computers were hacked and account details accessed, and $3.3m was paid out by people who had personal threats against them or somebody they knew.
About 15 per cent of losses in 2018 were by people aged between 25 and 34, 20 per cent of losses were by those in the 45 to 54 year-old age bracket, and almost half were by people 55 or older.
Mr Horne warned all age groups and business areas were equally at risk.
"I know of somebody my son's age who just lost $1900 from his account, and I know of individuals and businesses ripped off to the tune of $20,000, $80,000, or even $100,000," he said.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
