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The “world-leading” legislation aims to make Australia a hard nut to crack for scammers.
The Australian government has passed the Scams Prevention Framework into legislation, a set of laws aimed at protecting Australians from costly scams and the cyber criminals behind them.
In 2024 alone, Australians reported almost 250,000 scams, costing Aussies more than $318 million in total.
The new framework will require designated entities – currently banks, telcos, and social media companies – to proactively detect and disrupt scams and report scam activity.
For instance, social media will be required to verify advertisers, while banks must verify the identity of payees.
According to the government, this will lead to businesses being incentivised to build “ironclad scam defences”, or face fines of up to $50 million if they fail to meet the requirements of the legislation.
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said the legislation would “give Australia the strongest defences against scammers and put us ahead of the world in scam prevention and protection”.
“This is a promise we made ahead of the 2022 election and will make a genuine difference in the lives of every Australian.
“These new laws will keep Australia one step ahead of criminal scammers,” Minister Jones said.
Minister for Communications Minister Rowland added that protecting Australians was “a priority for this government”.
“The Scams Prevention Framework will help further strengthen scam defences, and I encourage the telecommunications sector and social media platforms to work with the regulators to develop the enforceable industry codes that will provide Australian consumers the best protection from the scourge of scams.
“We will continue to protect hard-working Australians from increasingly sophisticated and organised scammers,” Minister Rowland said.
David Locke, chief ombudsman and chief executive of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), welcomed the news.
“This legislation brings in the sectors needed to effectively disrupt and prevent scams. It creates the framework for new codes requiring the banks, telecommunications companies and digital platforms to take robust action to drive out this evil traffic. It will enable the apportionment of liability across different businesses and for a single joined-up redress scheme,” Locke said.
“AFCA believes this legislation is a significant step forward, and we will work with government, the regulators, industry and consumer groups in the collective effort to make Australia a place of last resort for scammers.”
NAB chief financial crime risk officer Paul Jevtovic called the legislation a “positive step” to preventing scams.
“What makes Australia’s Scam Prevention Framework world-leading is a laser focus on prevention and stopping the crime from occurring in the first place. We need to shut Australia’s door on the criminals,” Jevtovic said.
“Banks can’t stop dodgy text messages, impersonation phone calls, or bogus investment schemes on social media, the same way telcos or social media platforms can’t put added measures around payments.
“Working together and lifting measures across these sectors, we can have a much greater impact on driving scammers out of Australia.”
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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