• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

This publication presents results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Fraud Survey, conducted throughout Australia from July 2010 to June 2011 as part of the 2010-11 Multi-Purpose Household Survey (MPHS). This is the second national survey of personal fraud in Australia; the first Personal Fraud Survey was conducted in 2007.

This release contains summary results of the Personal Fraud Survey. Topics covered in the survey are identity fraud, including credit or bank card fraud and identity theft, and a selected range of scams (lotteries, pyramid schemes, chain letters, fake notifications or offers from a bank or financial institution, fake notifications or offers from an established business, requests to send bank or financial details to another person, and other scams).

The publication includes information about the characteristics of incidents of personal fraud and socio-demographic details of victims and non-victims.

About the 2010-11 Multi-Purpose Household Survey (MPHS)

The Personal Fraud Survey was run as a module of the Crime Victimisation Survey, part of the broader ABS Multi-Purpose Household Survey (MPHS). The MPHS is conducted throughout Australia as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS). One randomly selected person per household aged 15 years and over was asked about their experiences of personal fraud, providing information about incidents that occurred over a twelve month period prior to the date of interview (except for identity theft where persons were asked if they have ever been a victim of identity theft and then data was collected about experiences in the last 12 months, two years and five years).

Of the 32,555 private dwellings selected to participate in the Personal Fraud Survey, 26,405 or 81% fully responded to the questions on the survey.

Please refer to the Summary of Findings, Explanatory Notes and Technical Note for more detailed information about interpreting the results from the Personal Fraud Survey.

ROUNDING

As estimates have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between totals and the sums of the component items. Published percentages are calculated prior to rounding, and therefore some discrepancy may occur between these percentages and those that may be calculated from the rounded figures.

CHANGES TO THE ABS PERSONAL FRAUD SURVEY

There have been a number of changes from the 2007 Personal Fraud survey which have affected the comparability of some data items from the 2010-11 survey with data from the 2007 survey.

• The 2007 survey was conducted over a six month period whilst the 2010-11 survey spanned 12 months.
• In 2007, incident characteristics related to the most recent incident of each type of fraud. The 2010-11 survey collected detailed characteristics about all incidents in the last 12 months for each fraud type (except for identity theft).
• Due to the relatively low prevalence of identity theft, the reference period for incidents of identity theft was extended from 12 months prior to interview. Persons were asked if they have ever been a victim of identity theft and then data was collected about experiences in the last 12 months, two years and five years.
• Some of the types of selected scams included in 2010-11 differ from those in 2007.