Labor vows to crack down on $33billion online scam industry with new National Anti-Scam Centre

Australians have been conned out of $33billion a year in online scams prompting the Labor government to promise a major crackdown on the ‘scamdemic’.

Government lead agency The Cyber Security Centre has revealed scams more than doubled in 2020 before doubling again in 2021.

The massive spike has placed Australia in the top five countries most affected by scammers.

The biggest culprits are fake cryptocurrency and investment scammers, fake parcel-delivery services and fake invoices targeting small business email accounts. 

The Labor government has accused prime minister Scott Morrison of repeatedly ignoring warnings that Australia was ‘ripe for exploitation’.

Shadow assistant treasurer Stephen Jones told Daily Mail Australia now was the time for increased penalties for businesses and social media platforms aiding scammers.

‘Australians are being smashed by scammers and fraudsters, the government is either disinterested or incapable of doing about it,’ he said. 

The Opposition has vowed to take matters into their own hands and set up a National Anti-Scam Centre. 

The centre will be based on the UK model ‘Fusion Cell’ and fuse efforts from law enforcement, banks, telecommunications providers and consumer advocates to bolster national defences.

Funding will be doubled for identification recovery services that is expected to help an additional 20,000 Australians.

‘We need to provide more support to victims who have had their identities stolen and ensure they can repair and recover from ID theft,’ Mr Jones said. 

Tough new industry codes will also be brought in for banks, telecommunications providers, social media providers and Government agencies. 

They codes will clearly define the responsibilities of the organisations to protect consumers and businesses online. 

‘We need to ensure that banks, telecommunication companies and social media platforms are doing their bit,’ Mr Jones said. 

Online platforms will also be held responsible for removing false advertising from their sites with greater penalties introduced for scammers.  

In October, it was revealed scammers were impersonating an Australian Border Force officer in an elaborate scheme to dupe Australians.

The scam initially involves an automated message suggesting a parcel addressed to the person has been seized because it contains illegal material.

The message states an arrest warrant has been issued due to the parcel, with the recipient told to dial one to speak with an officer. 

The Opposition has vowed to take matters into their own hands and set up a National Anti-Scam Centre

A spokesperson from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, who run Scamwatch, said recipients of the call should ‘hang up immediately’ in a statement to 7 News.

‘Once the individual dials “one” (the scammers) would ask the reporter (victim) to Google their local Australian Federal Police phone number and (they had) called the reporter from that number through spoofing,’ the spokesperson explained.

‘Scammers would then get the victim to share bank account details, driving licence, passport, and a photo of reporter holding the licence. With these details, scammers can compromise the victim’s identity, with the photo being useful to pass a variety of institutions’ Know Your Customer checks.’ 

This terrifying scam is thought to be a variation of two other scams that have been reported to the ACCC before.

They involved one impersonating an Australian Taxation Officer and the other the Australian Federal Police.

Both reportedly threatened receivers of the call if they didn’t immediately make payments.