Leah thought she prevented a scam. Then her ‘bank’ called

Western Australians are being warned not to believe everything they see or hear – or their money could be at risk.

New figures show 773 people across the state were scammed in 2025 and lost a whopping $24 million.

Commerce Minister Tony Buti said the WA ScamNet Year in Review report revealed the number of people being scammed dropped from the previous year, but AI continued to be a problem.

“[The report is] sobering reading. Unfortunately, AI is becoming a real problem, and AI is becoming more sophisticated and people can generate what can be considered to be very convincing stories and convincing individuals, and they’re not who they say they are,” Buti said.

The report showed that 27 per cent of reported scams involved phishing – where scammers impersonate trusted brands, government agencies or banks to steal personal data via text, email or calls.

All up, phishing and hacking scams tallied a loss of $2.1 million, dating and romance scams cost victims $3.8 million and fake charities a total of $2 million.

The scam that saw the highest revenue loss was investment scams, which saw people hand over $13.7 million.

Artificial intelligence-related scams resulted in $257,819 stolen from 20 victims in 2025 and $93,000 so far in 2026.

Jindalee woman Leah Lewis lost $4540 after scammers pretended to be someone from her bank’s fraud department.

“I had a notification come through from my bank saying $540 was spent at EasyJet. I looked at my husband and asked ‘Did you just buy a flight?’ and he said no, so I called Commbank, and it was a scam,” Lewis said.

“They gave us our money back and everything was really good and then around 10 days later I had a phone call because I had a new card sent out in that time, and they said they were from Commbank, and they were looking out to see if I had just spent $300 in Darwin.

“I didn’t, so I said no. They then asked if I knew anyone by the name of Eugene … and I said no … and they said ‘Someone is trying to set up a direct debit for lots of different amounts. I need you to recite your card that we’ve just sent out to make sure that we can protect your money.”

The mother of six said she gave the callers her card details because she believed they were from Commbank, but in hindsight, it was the wrong move.

“Now [I know] it’s so silly, but stupidly I recited my card details to them, and they said they were going to protect my money,” Lewis said.

“They said they needed me to approve it on the app … which I did, not realising where the money was actually going until later on. It ended up going to a company called Taptap Send, which at the time I had no idea what it was. Unfortunately, it went to an international money sending company.”

Lewis said that throughout the 22-minute phone call, she never had any indication that the callers were actually scammers.

“$4540 taken, it was awful, especially when you’re a mum to six kids. I felt guilty, like I’d just given away our hard-earned money to some scammers when I thought I was protecting it,” she said.

Lewis said after a long process, Commbank was able to refund the stolen money.

‘Don’t be ashamed’

Consumer Protection Commissioner Patricia Blake said she has one clear message for people amidst the rise of AI scams.

“We’re still tragically seeing a lot of Western Australians lose their very hard-earned dollars to scammers year-on-year, and with the advent of AI, we’re seeing that those scams are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and increasingly more difficult to tell or to identify,” she said.

“So one very clear message to everybody out there is, please do not be ashamed if you have been scammed; anyone and everyone is capable of being scammed.”

On investment scams, Blake said never to trust celebrity-endorsed investments.

“Investment scams continue to be a real problematic area for Western Australian consumers and for the ScammNet team. This year, we saw one person lose $200,000 to what was a celebrity fake,” she said.

“This is the really important message: any celebrity is not going to be sharing with you their latest tips on investment. It just is not true; it will never happen. They have to have a financial services license in order to be recommending any kind of investment.”

Similarly, she urged people never to give money to someone they haven’t met in person.

“Romance scams are also very high on that list, and again, we sadly see a lot of people falling victim to AI with those romance scams,” she said.

“They think they’re in a relationship with often quite famous people, and we all look at that and think it’s got to be obvious that it’s a scam, but we have to remember that these scammers are among the best behavioral scientists on this planet.

“They are so very, very good at preying on our vulnerabilities and getting us into that space where we’re no longer thinking logically, but are thinking with our hearts and with our emotions.”

Her piece of advice to those who think they have been scammed: reach out to your bank as quickly as possible.

“Always contact your bank. Contact your bank immediately; that is your best chance of getting any of your funds back, but … often when victims are scammed, that money is gone.”