Anti-scam centre will speed up fraud response

The federal government is promising a faster response to reports of consumer fraud with the establishment of a $58 million National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC).

Stephen Jones, the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, said Australians lost more than $3 billion to scams in 2022 alone, and scam losses have increased nearly five‑fold since 2020. The average loss from a scam is around $20,000.

Mr Jones said the NASC being established by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be the government’s primary weapon to detect, disrupt, and deter scammers and tackle online fraud.

Describing it as a “world‑leading partnership between government agencies, banks, telcos and digital platforms”, he said the NASC will:

• Use cutting‑edge technology to share intelligence across government and with authorised industry participants to interrupt scams in real time.

• Combine the expertise of Government and the private sector to disrupt scams.

• Raise consumer awareness on the risk of scams and how to avoid them.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said the commission would be using the $58 million 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 for scammers”.

“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,” Ms Lowe said.

“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 NASC will be phased in from 1 July 2023, with capability, including data-sharing technology, to be built over the next three years.

In the first year of operation, it will work closely with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in delivering its scam website takedown service and support the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in its work combatting telecommunications scams.

“In 2022, text messages surpassed phone calls as the most reported contact method by scammers with almost 80,000 reports about SMS scams,” Ms Lowe said.

“We welcome the Federal Government’s commitment to introduce an SMS Sender ID register, similar to that implemented in Singapore, which will assist in disrupting impersonation scams and help consumers determine whether a text message using a sender ID is from a trusted source.”

Since receiving seed funding in October 2022, the ACCC has been consulting on the future work of the NASC and opportunities to better protect consumers from scams.