The Albanese government’s scam crackdown shows early signs of success, with scam losses down and call disruption technology saving potential victims from major losses.
The call disruption initiative is part of a new Fusion Cell designed to intercept contact between a scammer and a potential victim. Fusion cells are short‑term taskforces coordinated by the new National Anti‑Scam Centre (NASC) to tackle specific and aggressive scams as they arise.
The first fusion cell includes representatives from the banks, telcos and digital platforms, and is focussed on disrupting investment scams, which represent the most significant scam losses.
This week, the NASC reported one consumer was alerted to an imposter bond scam, prior to transferring significant funds to the scammer. The consumer intended to transfer $300,000 to invest savings in a term deposit and was in a late stage of the scam when they received the warning and discovered the scam.
This is a promising sign that the coordinated approach between the government and the private sector is working as intended. Scam losses are also down across the board since the government stood up the NASC in July last year. Losses reported to Scamwatch are down 60 per cent between 1 – 7 January 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The NASC also compared losses for particular types of scams over the same period, finding that losses are down 35 per cent for investment scams, 38 per cent for employment scams, and 63 per cent for online shopping scams.
In its first quarterly report released in November last year, the NASC reported overall losses were down by 16 per cent. This quarter ended with September being recorded as the lowest scam losses in a single month since 2021, a huge feat given scams had consistently been on the rise prior to the NASC.
Scammers adapt quickly and will change their methods and the victims they target. It’s important we remain vigilant and keep working together to fight scams.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones MP:
“Our scams crackdown continues to deliver promising results, with scam losses consistently down since we delivered on our promise to stand up a National Anti‑Scam Centre.
“People are no longer left to fight scammers on their own, with a government committed to fighting the scourge of scammers and protecting Australians money.
“This new data goes to show the strength of a coordinated public and private sector approach to fighting scams, which the government will continue to build on.
“While there are clear early signs of success, I urge Australians to remain vigilant to scams and keep up to date with new scam alerts from the NASC to protect themselves and their personal information.”
