West Australians lost $4.1 million to relationship fraud scams in 2016, new figures show.
And Australian Bureau of Statistics data last year also showed West Australians were more likely to fall for scams, credit card fraud, loyalty card schemes and identity theft than anywhere else in Australia.
WA ScamNet's latest data revealed Western Australians lost more than $10 million to overall scams last year, with romance fraud accounting for the majority of losses.
In better news however, ScamWatch reported a 34 per cent drop in victims since the launch of 'Project Sunbird', a Consumer Protection and Major Fraud Squad initiative that monitors money transfers from Australia to certain countries in West Africa.
ScamNet sent letters to people when unusual transfers were detected, warning them of a possible fraud.
Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said the project helped several West Australians repel scams.
"About 74 per cent of the 700 people who received a letter from Sunbird ceased sending more money, after being warned that they could be the victim of a scam," he said.
ScamWatch also increased awareness of notable scammer tactics, such as fake tech-support phone calls, fraudulent job recruitment and debt collection threats.
But there was a 21 per cent increase in technology scams in 2016, with monetary losses almost tripling. In these instances, scammers contact their victims usually by phone and pretend to be from a well-known telco such as Telstra, saying their computer has been hacked.
"They trick the person into giving them remote access to their computer and then ask them to log on to their online banking, where the bank accounts are later raided," he said.
National data shows nearly a third of all identity-theft reports were from Australian residents over 55 years of age.
Almost 70,000 scam mail items, bound for Australian homes, had been intercepted in the past.
Some letters informed recipients they had won a prize or lottery but must pay a small upfront fee to receive it, while others purported to be from clairvoyants claiming to provide secrets to finding fame and fortune, again for a small fee.
