Online grooming
Online child grooming is befriending a child, and sometimes the family, to make the child more open to sexual abuse. A person who is found guilty of grooming in Victoria is liable to 10 years imprisonment.
Online scams
Romance and dating scams involve scammers taking advantage of people looking for romantic partners, often via dating websites, apps or social media, by pretending to be prospective companions. They play on emotional triggers to extract money, gifts or personal details.
Romance baiting encourages victims to take advantage of a fake investment opportunity.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of extortion using malicious software (malware) that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files and demands ransom payment in order to regain access.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre advises against paying ransoms. Payment of the ransom may increase an individual or organisation’s vulnerability to future ransomware incidents. In addition, there is no guarantee that payment will undo the damage.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre has observed cybercriminals successfully using ransomware to disrupt operations and cause reputational damage to Australian organisations across a range of sectors:
- Health
- State and Territory governments
- Transport
- Education and research organisations
- Retail
The Australian Cyber Security Centre reported a 15% increase in ransomware cybercrime reports in the 2020–21 financial year.21
Malware and intimate image abuse
Image-based sexual abuse is the creation, distribution or threatened distribution of intimate, nude or sexual image or videos, without the consent of the person pictured. This includes images or videos that have been digitally altered using specialised software.
You can also report image-based abuse to the eSafety Commissioner.
Deepfakes use artificial intelligence software to learn from large numbers of images or recordings of a person to create an extremely realistic but false depiction of them doing or saying something that they did not actually do or say.24
18 Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, 12 February 2021, Romance Baiting Scams on the Rise, https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/romance-baiting-scams-on-the-rise
19 Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, 12 February 2021, Romance Baiting Scams on the Rise, https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/romance-baiting-scams-on-the-rise
20 Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, 12 February 2021, Romance Baiting Scams on the Rise, https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/romance-baiting-scams-on-the-rise
21 Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2021, ACSC Annual Cyber Threat Report: 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021
22 Office of the eSafety Commissioner, October 2017, Image-Based Abuse, National Survey: Summary Report (October 2017) https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-07/Image-based-abus…
23 Office of the eSafety Commissioner, October 2017, Image-Based Abuse, National Survey: Summary Report (October 2017) https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-07/Image-based-abus…
24 eSafety Commissioner, Deepfake trends and challenges — position statement, https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/tech-trends-and-challenges/deepfakes
Updated