Federal Government takes on the scammers

Member for Robertson Gordon Reid was joined by Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones at the second Robertson Scams forum, held at Umina Beach on Wednesday, April 10.

Around 150 people braved windy conditions for the forum, which outlined the Federal Government’s measures to combat scammers and afforded the chance for one-on-one time with the Minister.

The first forum was held at Davistown last year.

“Our community and local businesses are more protected from scammers than ever before with the establishment of the National Anti-Scams Centre,” Reid said.

“Every day, scammers are ripping money out the pockets of hard-working Australians.

“The Government is fighting back.

“If an offer seems too good to be true or suspicious, it probably is.”

Reid said people across the Central Coast were experiencing persistent calls, texts and social media accounts attempting to scam them out of money.

He and Minister Jones took attendees through ways to protect themselves from scams and knowing what to do if they are targeted by a scam as well as providing details on the steps the government is taking to crack down on the crime.

Before the Federal Labor Government came to office, Australians were losing over $3B a year to scams, Reid said.

Of particular concern was the fact that scam losses had doubled and doubled again in the space of three years.

That trend has now flipped, and losses have significantly reduced in the first six months of the Government’s crackdown.

In November 2023, scam losses decreased by over 50 per cent compared with November 2022. 

The Federal Labor Government is implementing an ambitious anti-scam agenda to combat scams.

The first phase was setting up the National Anti-Scam Centre in July last year, which was part of an $86.5M investment to fight scams and online fraud in the May Budget.

The announcement included: $58M for the ACCC to establish the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC); $17.6M for ASIC to bust fake investment websites that promote fake scams; and $10M for ACMA to establish and enforce an SMS sender ID registry to stop scam texts.

Phase two includes developing mandatory industry codes to impose tough new obligations on banks, telcos and social media platforms to protect their customers from scams.

“The NASC means that the people of the Central Coast can look to a trusted, centralised point within Government for information and education to protect themselves from scams,” Reid said.

“It is more important than ever that the Central Coast community is alert to scams and are aware of how to protect themselves.”

If you or anyone you know receive a suspicious call, text or email take these steps to protect yourself: take your time before giving money or personal information; ask yourself if the message or call could be fake; and act quickly if something feels wrong – contact your bank and report scams to Scamwatch.