The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) has rolled out new rules to protect Australians from text message scams.
From today, mobile providers will be required to identify, trace and block text message scams, share information about scam messages with other providers, and report scams to the authorities.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australians lost more than $2 billion to scams in the last year, with around $10 million lost through text messages.
Data from Scamwatch shows more than 67,000 text message scams were reported over 2021.
Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said the new rules would disrupt the business model for scammers.
“Most Australians have either received a scam text message, or know someone who has, and know how easy it can be to fall into the trap,” she said.
“These new rules aim to disrupt scammers’ business models, which will help to protect vulnerable Australians against scammers accessing their bank account, social media and online businesses.”
Telecommunications providers face fines of up to $250,000 if they fail to comply with the new rules.
Stopping scams a major project for telcos
The changes come after a previous effort from ACMA to stamp out scam phone calls, which saw $100 million pass through to scammers in 2021.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the rules should have a similar effect on text scams.
“We’re hoping that these rules will help Australian consumers as they have been helped by a previous code we put in place to reduce scam calls,” she said.
“That code has resulted in a reduction of an estimated half a billion scam calls to Australian consumers over the last 16 months.”
Chief executive of Communications Alliance John Stanton said the number of scam text messages shot up after providers cracked down on scam calls.
“They are a big issue globally and the problem has become worse in Australia since we started blocking in major fashion the scam calls,” he said.
“We’ve blocked more than 600 million of those in the last 16 months or so and, being criminals, the scammers have shifted their focus to scam SMS.”
Mr Stanton said it is not a simple process to stop scams from reaching consumers.
“It’s not an easy exercise to undertake, there’s a lot of requirements around tracking and blocking and identifying and reporting, but I think the industry has done a good job to address this,” he said.
Ms O’Loughlin said it needed to be a priority, with more than $6.5 million lost to text scams this year already.
“Scammers are quick moving and agile and we need to work with the industry to make sure that we’re trying to keep up with them, if not stay ahead of them,” she said.
“They’ve clicked on links, they have been asked to provide personal information. They may have been asked to make a small payment so that the scammer can get a hold of their bank account details and their personal details,” she said.
Ms O’Loughlin said the impact of scams on Australian lives can be devastating.
“At the extreme, people have lost their identity completely to the scammers, which means they have access to all their personal information and can access their bank accounts and pretty much take, in some cases, their entire life savings.” Ms O’Loughlin said.
“Scams aren’t just annoying, they can be really damaging for people. That’s why we’re always saying to people to be cautious, and we’re working with the telco sector to make sure they’re doing their bit,” she said.
Government flags more changes are coming
Phone call and text message scams are among the most reported by Australians to Scamwatch, but social networking, internet, email and app scams are fleecing people of hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Financial services minister Stephen Jones said the government is aware of the problem and more targeted rules are on the way.
“It’s costing us billions of dollars, but it’s also driving people mad. It matters for economic reasons, but it also matters for personal safety reasons,” he said.
The ACCC said scammers are now targeting vulnerable sections of the community, with around $66 million stolen by scammers from Indigenous Australians, people with a disability, and culturally diverse communities in 2021 – almost double the amount stolen in 2020.
Mr Jones said that is something the government is looking to address.
“We’ve got to get everyone working together to rid us of the cancer of scams,” he said.
“We also know with a whole bunch of this stuff, they target people who are busy, people have got lots of things going on, and perhaps don’t have time to pay the right sort of attention to the emails, the messages, the phone calls they’re getting.
“We’ll be putting in place other measures and, of course, we’ll be looking at the plight of vulnerable communities.”
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