Welcoming last week’s Budget allocation to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of the $58 million by the Federal Government, Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe also said the funds would go towards the Commission’s "mission to make Australia a harder target for scammers”.

“The centre will bring together the expertise and resources to disrupt scammers making contact with Australians, raise consumer awareness about how to avoid scams, and link scam victims to services where they have lost money or had their identity compromised.

“Through increased sharing of scam reports and other initiatives, the centre will help inform finance, telecommunications and digital platforms sectors to take more timely and effective steps to stop scammers,” Lowe added.

The ACCC says the National Anti-Scam Centre will be phased in from 1 July 2023, with capability, including data-sharing technology, to be built over the next three years - and work will also commence on the first fusion cell, which will coordinate efforts across government and the private sector to combat specific scam activity more effectively.

“This additional level of coordination and focus will help target anti-scam activities and help prevent losses to scams,” Lowe said, adding that in the first year of operation, the National Anti-Scam Centre will work closely with ASIC in delivering its scam website takedown service and support ACMA to continue its important work in combatting telecommunications scams.

“In 2022, text messages surpassed phone calls as the most reported contact method by scammers with almost 80,000 reports about SMS scams. We welcome the Federal Government’s commitment to introduce an SMS Sender ID register, similar to that implemented in Singapore, which will assist in disrupting impersonation scams and help consumers determine whether a text message using a sender ID is from a trusted source,” Lowe said.

“While these are all positive steps in the fight against scams, we also believe the work of the NASC would be greatly assisted by the establishment of effective cross-industry standards with coverage and teeth to ensure scammers can’t exploit weak links.”

Since receiving seed funding in October 2022, the ACCC has been consulting on the future work of the National Anti-Scam Centre and opportunities to better protect consumers from scams.

“We have received strong feedback that increased coordination of anti-scam efforts across government, the finance and telecommunications sectors and digital platforms would make a significant impact on the fight against scams. This will be the NASC’s focus,” Lowe concluded.