13 million Australians were exposed to scams last year

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data found text message scams doubled from 23 per cent in 2020-21 to 47 per cent in 2021-22.

Two thirds of Australians over 15 years old were exposed to a scam in 2021-2022, up from 55 per cent the previous year.

But Australians are getting better at spotting and avoiding scams, the ABS report found, with scam victims more likely to notify authorities.

"We found people are becoming more aware of scams and less likely to provide money, personal information or click on links associated with scams," ABS head of crime and justice statistics William Milne said.

"Even though people are responding less to scams, when they do they're now more likely to report to an authority," he said.

"We found that over half a million people who responded to a scam this year, 57 per cent reported their most recent incident, which is up from 50 per cent last year," he said.

Around one third of scam victims reported the crime to their bank or financial institution, which is the most common recourse, Mr Milne said.

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Reports to the police jumped up to 14 per cent from 8.2 per cent in the previous year, he said.

Scams, card fraud, identity theft and online impersonation are the most common cons in Australia, the report found.

And card fraud was the most common scam, particularly with Australians aged 35 to 44, according to the ABS.