More than 33,000 scammers tried to claim $33 million of the government’s disaster recovery payments since January 2022, according to a Nine report.
It says Services Australia’s fraud checks stopped the payments from going to the fake claims.
Government services minister Bill Shorten said: “The vast majority of people who submit claims are honest and are in urgent need of help. But unfortunately, in every disaster, we see both organised and opportunistic crooks trying to take advantage of other people’s misfortune.
“They think fake disaster claims will fly under the radar because Services Australia is, quite rightly, focused on delivering support payments quickly.”
Mr Shorten said there were measures in place to sniff out fraudsters, and assured them that they will be stopped.
Since July 2019, more than 250 people have been convicted of disaster payment fraud.
Are you appalled at how low some people stoop? Or does nothing surprise you these days?
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