Canberra is taking action to combat the increasing prevalence of illegal text message scams. Nearly half of all Australians have been scammed, deceived or exposed to a fake text message in the past year. And in 2022, these scams racked up an estimated $3.1 billion in losses.
In addition to monetary loss, victim of scams often feel a range of negative emotions, including embarrassment, anger and anxiety. They may also experience a loss of trust in others, including friends, family members and institutions that they need to use, such as banks, post delivery services and law enforcement.
To tackle this, the Albanese government is allocating more than $10 million to establish an Australian SMS sender ID Registry. This will be launched and maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The SMS sender ID Registry is designed to prevent scammers from impersonating well-known industry or government brand names, such as Linkt or myGov, in text message headers. This will provide a new layer of protection for Australian consumers against scammers who use these trusted brands to deceive and target victims.
This measure will complement the rules registered by the ACMA in July 2022, which resulted in the blocking of more than 90 million scam texts between July and December of that year. While there is no foolproof solution, Canberra is committed to enhancing protections and increasing efforts to fight illegal scams.
The SMS Sender ID Registry will be introduced in phases, subject to rule-making, industry readiness and security arrangements. The goal is to assist telecommunications companies in making it more challenging for scammers to impersonate trusted and established brand names through SMS.
The National Anti-Scam Centre
The establishment of the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is another investment by the Albanese government to tackle scams in Australia. The NASC is an innovative public-private partnership that leverages resources and expertise from whole-of-government, law enforcement, telecommunications providers, financial services, digital platforms, and other intermediaries to develop a cohesive strategy to prevent scams from impacting the economic and social wellbeing of Australians.
“Every day, scammers are ripping money out of the pockets of hard-working Australians,” said Stephen Jones, assistant treasurer and minister for financial services. “The government is fighting back. With the establishment of the National Anti-Scam Centre and initiatives such as the SMS sender ID Registry, we are driving home a clear message; the government is putting scammers on notice.
“We know text messages have topped phone calls as a scammers tool of choice. The registry will not only make it tougher for scammers to imitate trusted brands through SMS – it will be crucial in disrupting a key channel that scammers use to target victims.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed just last week that:
- Text messages were the leading contact method for scams in 2022 (33 per cent of scam reports) surpassing phone calls (29 per cent).
- Reports about scam texts to Scamwatch increased by 18.8 per cent in 2022. There were 79,836 reports of scam texts. However, 30 per cent of victims do not report scams – including text scams – to anyone, so the estimated loss of more than $3.1 billion in 2022 is likely to be far higher.
- The most common category of scam reported to Scamwatch in 2022 was phishing (tricking victims into giving out personal information such as bank accounts, passwords, credit cards or super). There was a 469 per cent increase in phishing financial losses in 2022. Most phishing scams were sent as text messages.
Have you ever received a text message that you believe was a scam? Did you report it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: How to spot phone scams before they ruin you
