fbpx
Skip to main content
New Financial Assistance Hub

Mandatory industry scams codes important part of winning war against scammers

13 September 2024

Banks welcome the release of draft legislation to establish a new Scam Prevention Framework to better protect consumers and drive scammers out of Australia.

ABA CEO Anna Bligh said winning the war against scammers will only be possible through a collective effort across the entire scams chain, including from government, banks, telcos and social media companies.

“Banks have advocated for these industry codes because only an entire scams chain approach with a major focus on prevention will enable us to beat scammers,” Ms Bligh said.

“Australia has made progress, with scam losses falling, however holding all parts of the scams chain to account is the only way to properly protect the community. 

“These codes must address the core problem of people being exposed to scams in the first place. That means ensuring telcos and the social media platforms have strong protections in place to stop scams reaching Australians.

“Banks welcome confirmation that this Framework will see the creation of a single complaints body.

“A single complaints body will provide more consistent outcomes for customers and be best positioned to consider each sector’s responsibility for consumer redress where a business has failed to meet an obligation.

“Australian banks are already putting in place some of the strongest anti-scam protections in the world through the industry’s Scam-Safe Accord.

“This high standard of protection is seeing banks deploy a range of tools including confirmation of payee technology, more payment warnings and delays, identity checks and enhanced intelligence sharing.

“Our industry stands ready to work with the Government and other sectors on the finalisation of these mandatory codes that will set an even higher standard of scam prevention and disruption.”

“I urge all members of Parliament to support this legislation and ensure its passage as soon as possible.”

Contact: Benn Ayre | [email protected] | 0428 342 325
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | www.ausbanking.org.au

Latest news

1 / 3
Transcript
Doorstop in Sydney on new mandatory industry scams codes  
13 September 2024

Anna Bligh: This new framework is a comprehensive approach to the terrible scourge of scams. This will mean that every single part of the scam chain where scammers try to take the hard earned money of Australians will now have to play a role in preventing scams, detecting them and keeping Australians safe.  Journalist: I… Read more »

Read more
Transcript
Interview on ABC Radio Sydney on surcharges
4 September 2024

Craig Reucassel (Host): It’s also there was a bit of an inquiry into banking in parliament last week, NAB boss Andrew Irvine complained that he’d paid a 10 per cent surcharge when he bought a cup of coffee in Sydney. Surcharging has been outlawed in parts of the United States, Canada, Europe and Britain. Is… Read more »

Read more
Op-Ed
Why Australia’s whole-of-scam-chain approach is key to winning the war against scammers
3 September 2024

One of the most alarming consequences of the recent CrowdStrike technical outage was how quickly scammers moved to take advantage of it. Within 24 hours, the Australian Cyber Security Centre had issued a warning to Australians about the potential risk of scams. Scammers pounced, impersonating CrowdStrike and Microsoft employees to trick people into providing remote access to… Read more »

Read more