Taking The Fight To The Scammers

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australians lost a record $3.1 billion to scams in 2022, as government, law enforcement and the private sector look to improve collaborative efforts to support the community in the fight against scams. This is an 80 per cent increase on total losses recorded in 2021.

In the latest bid to combat scammers, the ACCC have allocated $58m in funding to build the technology needed to support high frequency data sharing with a range of agencies, law enforcement and the private sector, with the mission to make Australia a harder target.

According to the ACCC, “The centre will bring together the expertise and resources to disrupt scammers making contact with Australians, raise consumer awareness about how to avoid scams, and link scam victims to services where they have lost money or had their identity compromised.”

“Through increased sharing of scam reports and other initiatives, the centre will help inform finance, telecommunications and digital platforms sectors to take more timely and effective steps to stop scammers.”

The ACCC said of the funding, $44 million will be set aside for the technology build, enabling the National Anti-Scam Centre to:

• Receive a report of a scam from any institution – private or government – and centralize the intelligence
• Distribute data to those who need it most, such as banks to freeze an account, telcos to block a call, or digital platforms to take down a website or account
• Analyze and act on the trends sourced from the data to disrupt scams and educate Australians

Financial services minister Stephen Jones said the funding is about protecting Australians and taking the fight to the scammers.

“It’s about ensuring that when reports are made, wherever they’re made, whether it’s to the National Anti-Scam Centre, whether it’s to ASIC or state or federal police organisations, or to a bank or telecommunications company, we are sharing the information so that the people who need to know that there are scammers out there in the field are able to act on it quickly,” said Mr Jones.

“As soon as money leaves a person’s bank account, it’s almost too late. So this is all about ensuring that we can knock the scams on the head before they get out there in the field.”

The ACCC said the National Anti-Scam Centre would be phased in from 1 July 2023 and will have its capability, including data-sharing technology, built up over the coming years.

Hills Accounting acknowledges Accountants Daily for their contribution to parts of this article.