Fraudsters robbed unsuspecting Australians of $81.8 million in 12 months with the national consumer watchdog warning the figure could be even higher.
Unsolicited phone calls and text messages continued to be a favoured strategy for scammers, although more than half of the $81 million forfeited was done so online. 
Dating and romance scams cost Australians almost $28 million last financial year, with 2669 warnings issued to potential victims in NSW and the ACT.
The latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission annual report found 916,137 scams were reported by consumers and small businesses.
"Scams and associated losses are likely to be under-reported to the ACCC because victims may report to other authorities, may be unwilling to report their experience, or may not even realise they have been scammed," the report said.
The Commission warned identity fraud had become one of the most common crimes in Australia and had an estimated economic impact of $1.6 billion every year.
Three-quarters of those who received ACCC warnings in 2014-15 confirmed they were scam victims and confirmed a collective loss of $2.6 million, or an average of $28,000 each.
Close to 70 per cent of those who received the warnings stopped sending money overseas for at least six weeks.
According to the commission, the number of dating scams has increased in recent years with efforts now being made to warn consumers in the lead-up to Valentine's Day.
The latest international scam was detailed by Australian Federal Police on Wednesday and involved an elderly New Zealand man booking flights to Hong Kong to collect a US$165,000 lottery prize he never entered.
The 74-year-old was stopped by Australian Border Force officials in Sydney and warned about the potential of phishing scams and of becoming an unwitting drug mule.
Australian Border Force regional commander Tim Fitzgerald said the approach taken by online scammers was sophisticated and should be taken seriously
"There is every chance he would've unknowingly returned home as an illegal drug courier, which unfortunately is something we've seen people caught up in before," he said.
More than 36,000 scams were recorded in NSW during 2014-15 with 28,500 recorded in Sydney, 24,400 in Victoria, and just 3917 in the ACT.
The Australian Taxation Office has routinely warned against an aggressive scam threatening taxpayers with arrest and legal action unless they comply with requests.
The scam attempted to force people to pay a fake tax debt over the phone and threatened consumers with arrest if they refused to comply.
The calls were reported all across Australia with many reporting multiple aliases. Some even reported their house and contents being repossessed.  
Earlier this week, Fairfax Media revealed the ATO had been targeted more than 11,000 times by identity fraudsters attempting to steal tax refunds in the 2014-2015 financial year.

 The 11,000 attempts at ID fraud were part of the wider picture of 91,000 "revenue fraud incidents" recorded on the ATO's systems during the 12-month period.
The consumer watchdog dealt with 47,701 scam complaints on the national hotline with 39,950 subscribing to email updates on fraud risks.