The financial and emotional devastation caused by scams every year in Australia can be reduced if government, consumer groups and the private sector work together to make Australia a much harder target for scammers, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said yesterday.
In a speech to the Law Council of Australiaโs 2022 Consumer Law Forum in Sydney last night, Ms Cass-Gottlieb said this would require a three-pronged approach.
โFirst, we need to stop scammers reaching consumers by disrupting the means by which they contact would-be victims โ whether through phone calls, SMS, email, social media,โ Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.
โSecond, we need to better educate consumers so that if a scam contact makes it through to them, they are able to recognise it as a scam. Scammers are increasingly sophisticated and cunning in the ways they trick consumers and businesses, so this is a key challenge to address.โ
โFinally, we need measures in place so that if a consumer is convinced to attempt to transfer funds to a scammer there is a safety net there to prevent this from happening.โ
Top Australian Brokers
- eToro - market-leading social trading platform - Read our review
- IG - Extensive product array and user-friendly platforms - Read our review
- IC Markets - experienced and highly regulated - Read our review
- Avatrade - powerful trading tools - Read our review
During 2021, almost $1.8 billion in combined losses were reported toย Scamwatch,ย ReportCyber, 12 financial organisations and other government agencies.
โOnce we consider the fact that about a third of scam victims donโt report their losses, the real figure lost to scams in 2021 was well more than $2 billion,โ Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.
โThese figures are staggering and represent a severe financial impost. What can never be calculated, however, is the emotional toll and the life changing consequences that can result from these scams and their impacts on individuals, families, and businesses.โ
The fight against scams was never-ending and ever-evolving, Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.
โNo sooner do we succeed in shutting down one scam than another springs up in its place,โ she said.
โBut I firmly believe that by bringing together government, consumer groups, the financial services sector and the telecommunications sector we can make Australia a much harder target for scammers and prevent not only the billions of losses that we have seen to date, but also the emotional devastation.โ
โTake this as a call to action to make Australia the worldโs hardest scam target.โ
Originally published by the ACCC