New rules rolled out to help protect Australians from text message scams
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has rolled out new rules to protect Australians from text message fraud.
Key points:
- Australians lose more than $2 billion to fraud in 2021
- Telecom providers could face fines of up to $250,000 if they fail to comply
- The frequency of fraudulent SMS increased sharply after crackdown on scam callers
Starting today, cellular providers will be required to identify, track, and block text message fraud, share information about fraudulent messages with other providers, and report fraud to authorities.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australians lost more than $2 billion to fraud in the last year, with about $10 million lost via text messages.
Data from Scamwatch shows more than 67,000 text message frauds were reported during 2021.
Federal Communications Secretary Michelle Rowland said the new rules would disrupt the scammers’ business model.
“Most Australians have received a fraudulent text message, or know someone who has received one, and know how easy it is to fall into the trap,” he said.
“This new rule aims to disrupt the fraudster’s business model, which will help protect vulnerable Australians against fraudsters accessing their bank accounts, social media and online businesses.”
Telecom providers face fines of up to $250,000 if they fail to comply with the new rules.
Stopping fraud is a big project for telecommunications companies
The changes come after an earlier attempt by ACMA to stamp out fraudulent phone calls, which resulted in $100 million being passed on to scammers in 2021.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the rules should have the same effect on text fraud.
“We hope this rule will help Australian consumers as they have been helped by previous codes we implemented to reduce fraudulent calls,” he said.
“The code has resulted in a reduction of around half a billion fraudulent calls to Australian consumers over the past 16 months.”
Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said the number of fraudulent text messages soared after providers cracked down on fraudulent calls.
“They are a huge problem globally and this problem has only gotten worse in Australia since we started massively blocking fraudulent calls,” he said.
Mr Stanton said it was not a simple process to stop scams from reaching consumers.
“This is not an easy exercise to do, there are a lot of requirements around tracking and blocking and identifying and reporting, but I think the industry has done a good job of addressing this,” he said.
Ms O’Loughlin said it needed to be a priority, with more than $6.5 million lost to text fraud this year.
“Scams are fast and agile and we need to work with the industry to ensure that we try to keep up with them, if not stay ahead of them,” he said.
“They have clicked on the link, they have been asked to provide personal information. They may have been asked to make a small payment so the scammer can get their bank account details and personal details,” he said.
Ms O’Loughlin said the impact of fraud on Australian lives could be devastating.
“At the extreme, people have lost their identity completely to scammers, which means they have access to all of their personal information and can access their bank accounts and pretty much take, in some cases, their entire life savings.” said Ms O’Loughlin.
“Scams are not only annoying, they can cost people a lot. That’s why we always tell people to be careful, and we work with the telecommunications sector to make sure they do their part,” he said.
Government marks more changes to come
Phone call and text message scams are among the most widely reported by Australians to Scamwatch, but social network, internet, email and app scams scam people into hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Financial Services Secretary Stephen Jones said the government was aware of the issue and more targeted regulation was in the works.
“We cost billions of dollars, but it’s also driving people crazy. It’s important for economic reasons, but it’s also important for personal safety reasons,” he said.
The ACCC says scammers are now targeting vulnerable sections of the community, with an estimated $66 million stolen by scammers from Indigenous Australians, people with disabilities and culturally diverse communities in 2021 – nearly double the amount stolen in 2020.
Mr Jones said it was something the government wanted to address.
“We have to get everyone to work together to rid us of the cancer of fraud,” he said.
“We also know with a large number of these things, they target people who are busy, people have a lot going on, and may not have time to pay attention to the emails, phone messages, calls they receive.
“We will implement other measures, and of course, we will see the suffering of vulnerable communities.”
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