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Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones has done the media rounds selling the government’s tough new stance on fighting scammers and platforms that fail their customers.
The Australian government is putting forward a new Scam Code Act to make platforms that fail to adequately protect their customers answerable to hefty fines.
If passed, the act will require social media platforms, telecommunications carriers, and banks to report scams immediately or face fines of up to $50 million.
Under the act, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be empowered to draft mandatory codes for the three industries and for individual businesses or platforms.
Companies would need to block known scam phone numbers and stop scams from being distributed when discovered on social media platforms.
Speaking on ABC’s Melbourne Mornings program today, 9 September, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones compared the government’s proposed new laws to what it would expect if fraudulent advertisements were published in a newspaper.
“If Facebook or Instagram or Google or any of the others – TikTok, let’s not forget them, or X – if they are taking advertising money from criminals who are publishing criminal content, whose intent is to rob Australians of their information and money, there’s something very wrong about that,” Jones said.
“You couldn’t do that if you’re a broadcaster in Australia. You couldn’t do that if you’re a newspaper. You would be liable as a newspaper publisher if you were publishing ads, taking money to publish ads with criminal content. You’d be liable for that. So, we simply ask the question: why should a social media platform be any different? And the very first step in ensuring that they’re not different is ensuring that they verify the identity of the advertiser.”
Jones said that telcos, banks, and social media all have a role to play in fighting scams and that they could – and must – do better.
“It’s about looking at the ecosystem in which scams operate. Over 50 per cent of the scams come to us through the telecommunications network and SMS phone messages. The rest of it is coming over a social media platform – Facebook, Instagram or any of their messaging apps,” Jones said.
“So, they’re the vectors, and the wallet at the end of it is the bank. So, everyone in that ecosystem has got a role to play.”
Jones also addressed calls for banks to refund customers who have been tricked into transferring money to a scammer.
“I don’t want to have a system in place when nobody, including the consumer, has to take any responsibility because that’s not a healthy ecosystem,” Jones said.
“But just saying this is all the consumer’s fault, this is all the customer’s fault … if they make a mistake here, they’re a mug and it’s on them – I don’t cop that either because of the sophistication of these scams and because everyone in the ecosystem needs to – everyone in the economy needs to be taking a greater level of responsibility. That’s why we’re doing this.”
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Jones also addressed the Australian Online Scams Code, which was proposed by a raft of social media companies, including Meta, Discord, and TikTok.
“I don’t believe they are in line with community expectations or government expectations,” Jones said.
“A newspaper can’t publish an ad which is criminal in its content. We would hold the newspaper liable if they did that.
“Social media platforms put their hands up and say ‘this isn’t us, we can’t be responsible for this stuff’, but that is not good enough.”
Jones said he intends to introduce the new laws to Parliament later this year.
According to Scamwatch, reported scam losses so far for 2024 total nearly $160 million from 164,000 scams.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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