A federal government crackdown on scams has resulted in a 29 per cent reduction in reported losses to scams in the past six months.
Despite that, Australians still lost more than $3 billion to scams in 2022.
Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones attended a community forum in Newcastle on Wednesday to outline details of the government's anti-scam agenda.
The forum provided an opportunity for people to learn ways to protect themselves from scams, know what to do if they are targeted by a scam, and hear about the steps the government is taking to crackdown on this crime.
"For well over a decade these criminals (scammers) have had a free run," Mr Jones said.
"When we came into the government the scammers were stealing $3billion a year from Australians and small businesses. Every one of those dollars had a tragedy behind it. We made a promise to turn the tide and that's exactly what we are doing."
The first phase of the government's anti-scam offensive was the establishment of the National Anti-Scam Centre in July last year. The initiative was part of an $86.5 million investment to fight scams and online fraud.
This included:
- $58 million for the ACCC to establish the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC)
- $17.6 million for ASIC to bust fake investment websites that promote fake scams
- $10 million for ACMA to establish and enforce an SMS sender ID registry to stop scam texts
The Government's crackdown on scams has already shown signs of success. In the six months since the NASC was created, reported losses to scams reduced by 29 per cent compared with the same period in 2022.
By last week, ASIC had taken down 4,220 investment scam websites, with another 540 in the works. And early data in 2024 shows overall scam losses reported are around 40 per cent lower than the same period in 2023.
"Our community and local businesses are more protected from scammers than ever before with the establishment of the National Anti-Scams Centre," Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said.
"Every day, scammers are ripping money out of the pockets of hard-working Novocatrians. The Government is fighting back."
