A national anti-scams centre is being established to help combat scams and online fraud, after Australians reported losing billions of dollars to fraudsters last year.
The federal government will spend $86 million on a national effort to prevent scams, including $58 million to create the national centre to report scams and distribute information to banks, law enforcement and vulnerable communities.
The government says the new initiative will change the way scams are dealt with by:
- Facilitating faster responses to scam reports — when a report is made to police or regulators information will be shared more quickly
- Establishing "fusion shells" — described as a "hit squad" of experts from industry and law enforcement to act on scam trends
- Introducing a "white list" of approved phone numbers, with SMS messages will be blocked unless they’re from an authorised agency
Last month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported Australians lost more than $3.1 billion to scams in 2022 — an 80 per cent increase from 2021.
The ACCC estimates that at least 30 per cent of victims do not report scams, so the true losses are likely to be far higher.
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said he anticipated reports of scams would actually go up after the centre was established.
"We know we're only getting and hearing about the tip of the iceberg at the moment," he said.
"We want to know more, so we can act faster and act better to ensure that we can reduce the losses."
Mr Jones said bank customers were overwhelmingly the main target for scammers.
"Banks are absolutely critical in this and some work we'll do between now and the end of the year is working on codes of practice so there are clear lines of responsibility between banks and their customers, but we also need cooperative approach with banks and I'm confident we're getting it."
Heat on banks to step up
The banks are under increasing pressure to do more to address scams after the corporate watchdog ASIC released a highly critical report last month.
The report covered the big four banks — Westpac, NAB, Commonwealth and ANZ — and their scam procedures in the 2021-22 financial year.
About 31,100 customers at the big four banks collectively lost more than $558 million to scams in that 12-month period.
The banks only paid about $21 million in compensation to the victims and the rate of reimbursement was between 2 and 5 per cent.
Consumer groups are continuing to push for banks to reimburse scam victims except in cases of extreme negligence, something the minister is not enthusiastic about and the industry has pushed back against.
"We support the National Anti-Scams Centre, but it will only deliver meaningful outcomes if it is backed up by new laws that mandate industry action on scam prevention and impose liability for losses when they fail," Consumer Action CEO Stephanie Tonkin said in a statement.
"What we need now is for banks to reimburse scams victims — except in circumstances of gross negligence — and this needs to be made mandatory by the federal government."
Mr Jones said codes of practice would be developed for banks, social media, telcos and other industry players this year.
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‘Almost impossible to get money back’
Labor pushed for more to be done to combat scams when it was in opposition. Now in government, it has a mammoth task on its hands.
Consumer groups say this new centre won't do much to help people who have already lost money, as its focus is on intervening to prevent future scams.
The government says the centre will use "cutting-edge technology" to share intelligence among industry players to detect and disrupt scams in real time.
It will also focus on raising consumer awareness and ensuring others don't get scammed.
Mr Jones said while money was sometimes successfully recovered for scam victims, it was "almost impossible to get money back once it’s been lost".
"Acting quickly limits the harm. Once the money has left the bank account, it's almost impossible to get it back again," he said.
Anti-scams centre similar to UK model
The centre will open in July and sit within the ACCC.
Mr Jones said the anti-scams centre would bring together government and industry to collaborate closely for the first time to target emerging scams.
"We're also going to set up fusion cells, which are like a hit squad, where we're going up to certain types of scams and taking the fight up to the scammers, to ensure that they don't get an even break," he said.
Establishing a national anti-scams centre, based on a similar model in the UK, was a promise Labor took to the election, with the ACCC receiving support in the October mini-budget.
The centre was formally announced last November and the latest budget confirmed it would receive more than $50 million funding.
