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I read a quote recently that’s been haunting me. It was from Monica Whitty, a Professor of Human Factors in Cyber Security from Monash University. She’s spent over 20 years studying the psychological triggers of scams. She says, and I quote, “There’s a scam for everyone.” It got me thinking. I, and many others like me I suspect, tend to float through life thinking they’re immune to scams, that somehow their spidey sense will start tingling the second a scammer comes near. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is scams are becoming so sophisticated, so targeted, that everyone – even the most tech savvy among us – is at risk. Take the new AI voice-cloning scams for example. Using artificial intelligence, this scam scrapes the voice…
CHOICE calls for ban on unfair business practices Most people believe that Australian businesses are required to act fairly towards consumers. But a gap in the law means Australian consumers are being exposed to a number of dodgy business practices – things like subscription traps and unfair pricing. It’s clear that consumer laws have not kept up with community expectations. Other jurisdictions like the EU, UK and US already have laws in place to address unfair business practices, but Australia is lagging behind. The good news is that the government is currently considering what new fairness laws could look like. Recently, CHOICE, the Consumer Policy Research Centre and a range of other consumer groups made a joint submission to the government’s consultation on unfair business practices, calling for a new…
In December last year, CHOICE joined over 20 consumer groups from 19 countries in a joint international statement calling on governments to require social media and other tech companies to implement stronger protections against online scams. These companies are failing to detect and prevent scams from reaching consumers through their platforms, while online scams continue to rise. Tech platforms currently provide a low-cost way for unscrupulous actors to efficiently target large numbers of consumers, and the number and total amount of losses to scams on tech platforms has been increasing. In Australia, losses reported to Scamwatch from scams on social media grew to over $66 million in 2023, an increase of more than 40% on the same time period in 2022. In the global statement, the alliance of organisations is…
The federal government has made an in-principle agreement to adopt the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) proposed law reforms to address consumer harms caused by digital platforms. Proposed in 2022, the reforms call for regulations to address anti-competitive conduct, and seek to address “unfair and arbitrary” treatment of small businesses by the major platforms. “Companies like Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon supply services that most Australians use every day,” says ACCC acting chair Catriona Lowe. “These digital platforms are often unavoidable ‘gatekeepers’ between Australian businesses and consumers, giving them huge influence across the whole economy. Lowe says the proposed reforms will ensure fairer and more transparent treatment of small and medium-sized businesses, “allowing Australians to fully realise the benefits of participating in the digital economy”. “By promoting competition…
The Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission is urging Australians to check the registered charity status of any organisation before donating, as charity scams are on the rise. “Cyber-criminals are out there, trying to take advantage of our kind-heartedness and generosity. Official data shows Australians lost $3.1 billion to scammers [in 2022]. There were hundreds of reports of fake charity scams to Scamwatch, but we know it is likely that significantly under-represents the actual incidence,” Commissioner Sue Woodward says. “We recommend that if you get a text, email or phone call asking you for a donation to charity, don’t click that link, and don’t tell anyone your name or banking details.” The Commission recommends you visit its charity register at acnc.gov.au/charity/charities, search for the charity in question, and then navigate from…
The communications regulator is pushing ahead with setting up a registry to combat impersonation SMS messages. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is developing a pilot Sender ID Registry to make it harder for scammers to impersonate trusted organisations over SMS, after telcos already blocked over 336 million scam texts between July 2022 and September last year. “These figures provide stark evidence of the scale of scam activity, with approximately 16 scam texts being blocked for every adult in the country,” says ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin. “Every scam stopped is a win for consumers and helps make Australia a harder target for these criminal syndicates.” The regulator says the registry will “protect the message headers of brands and government agencies”, after scammers were able to pose as these institutions…
