There would be few more obviously despicable businesses than that of a scammer. So what do we say of those who facilitate, either tacitly or explicitly, scammers?

The scam is, of course, not new to human behaviour. The phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute” has been in use for more than 100 years, but with the creation of the internet, and the rise of tech companies and social media, the scam has become a global blight. It is an industry that preys on people to make fortunes for itself while being indifferent to the carnage.

An ad running on Facebook and Instagram this week linked to a scam website featuring a fake endorsement from businessman Dick Smith.

Australians, unfortunately, are seen as soft targets. Last year, they lost $2.7 billion to scams. Australia’s Scamwatch says that of the almost 200,000 scams reported to it in the first nine months of this year, social media accounted for a quarter of losses. That is an outsized share as it was the source of only 6.4 per cent of the reports.

As Catriona Lowe, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair, has said: “Social media does tend to offer a pretty good return on investment for scammers.” The ACCC has brought legal action against........

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