Who protects the vulnerable from cybercriminals asks Orange resident William Tuck

"I got it once so I trashed it," Mr Tuck said referring to an email which carried an official-looking Australia Post logo, a delivery tracking ID number and a message stating no one was at home when the courier called and the delivery is 'on hold'.

And of course, there is the 'click here' button to 'reconfirm the parcel shipping'.

"I thought, it's the usual stuff so I got rid of it but it came back another time and then I started thinking, what about other people?

"What about people who don't know what to do, don't know who to go to, or even don't know how to delete it?

"It's not fair on people who don't know how to protect themselves. What should they do?"

Mr Tuck said he doesn't trust the web and therefore doesn't shop online, so with no parcel expected and knowing he was at home at the time of the supposed delivery, spotting the message was fraudulent was a no-brainer. But he said others his age might not be as vigilant, especially if they were expecting a delivery.

Known as a phishing scam, victims are enticed into opening the email, enabling cybercriminals masquerading as well-known businesses to access the victim's data such as login details and account numbers.

"I've been getting a bit of a thing about it," Mr Tuck said saying he became more concerned elderly people were being targeted when he visited his bank to withdraw cash.

"It was a reasonable amount of money and the lady behind the counter asked me if I was okay?" he said.

He said the teller explained there had been incidents of elderly residents visiting the bank to take out large sums of cash and she was worried he may have been coerced.

"The thing is, I reckon someone has to take responsibility," he said, calling on the Federal and State governments to do more to protect vulnerable people.

"There are people out there who would read this [the email] and believe this ... give us your details and we'll fix it all for you.

"And when I went into Australia Post they said, it happens, well that's not good enough really is it?"

In a statement, a spokesperson for Australia Post said the company would never contact customers via SMS or email asking for personal or financial information, or payment.

The spokesperson said customers should also look for a non-Australia Post web address and an unusual sense of urgency as a clues to a suspected a scam.

"If customers receive a suspicious email or text message that appears to be from Australia Post, we encourage them to report it to scams@auspost.com.au and delete it immediately.

"Links to some short videos and more information about scams targeting Australia Post customers is available at: https://auspost.com.au/about-us/about-our-site/online-security-scams-fraud/scam-alerts"

Mr Tuck said he was impressed with the bank teller and would like more institutions to adopt that approach.

"That woman in the bank needs a lot of praise because what she is saying is if you're in trouble, talk to us about it. She was pretty good," he said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Scamwatch says Australians lost over $205 million to scams between January 1 and May 1 this year, a 166 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

The true losses to scams are likely to be much higher, as research shows that only around 13 per cent of people report their losses to Scamwatch.

The majority of losses over this period have been to investment scams with $158 million lost, an increase of 314 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Scamwatch data also shows scam contact methods are changing with text message up 54 per cent between January 1 and May 1 this year, surpassing phone call as the most common contact mode.

People aged 55 to 64 reported the highest total losses, $32 million between January 1 and May 1 and over 80 per cent of losses reported by this age group was lost to investment scams ($26m).

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