Scambling is another online danger for Aussies, who lose $2.2 billion a year to financial swindles. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)
Australians love to gamble, but if you’re going to try your luck, please don’t get lured in by illegal online gambling sites.
That’s the message from one of Australia’s biggest telecommunications companies, which is ramping up its fight against “scambling”.
Scambling, or scam gambling, is one of the fast-growing threats faced by people going online, where they already lose about $2.2 billion a year to hundreds, if not thousands, of different financial swindles.
These gambling games, which mirror casinos, poker machines and even scratchies, have been illegal in Australia since 2021, but that hasn’t stopped scammers reaching their targets.
Telstra has blocked close to 1800 high-risk gambling-themed domains since the start of 2026, stopping more than two million attempted visits by people lured in by promises of big wins or prizes.
“It’s definitely ramping up,” Telstra cybersecurity expert Darren Pauli says of scambling activity.
But what’s really worrying Australia’s biggest telco is a recent shift in when these scammers go into action.
And the timing was deliberate, Mr Pauli said.
Telstra found that 63 per cent of scam messages are sent between 6pm and midnight, peaking between 7pm and 9pm, followed by a second surge between 2am and 4am.
“If people are going to put a bet on, that’s probably when sports are on, everyone’s relaxing and your guard is down,” Mr Pauli said of the peak risk period.
The second surge appears to be aimed at shiftworkers winding down or even insomniacs looking for a distraction.
“Certainly, your mind is not as sharp as it could be … (the scammers) had years working out when people are not at their sharpest mentally, so they kind of know what works,” Mr Pauli said.
Here’s broadly how the scam works.
