Australian businesses lost nearly $4.7 million to scammers last year – up 23% on the previous year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says its Scamwatch service received 5432 reports from businesses last year, with an average of nearly $11,000 lost per case.

Small businesses with fewer than 20 staff were most likely to be targeted by scammers and accounted for more than 50% of reports to the ACCC.

“Scammers will use a variety of cons to swindle busy workers and it can be very devastating to a business’ bottom line,” Deputy Chairman Michael Schaper said.

Businesses are most likely to be targeted with false billing scams, while employment and investment scams caused the most losses at nearly $1.7 million.