The National Anti-Scam Centre held its inaugural Advisory Board meeting this week marking the commencement of greater cross-sector collaboration in the fight against scammers. The Advisory Board includes senior leaders from government, industry, consumer organisations, victim support services and law enforcement.
The Advisory Board will support and inform the delivery of the National Anti-Scam Centre's work to disrupt scammers and reduce the impact of scams for consumers and businesses.
"As scammers become increasingly sophisticated in their tactics, a coordinated response across government, law enforcement and the private sector is essential to combat scams more effectively," ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
"The National Anti-Scam Centre's Advisory Board will enable government to work with key industry sectors and consumer organisations to identify emerging scam and fraud issues, share information and coordinate our efforts to better protect consumers."
Members of the Advisory Board will play a key role in providing expert advice to the National Anti-Scam Centre by sharing their relevant experiences and intelligence to minimise the threat of scams.
The Advisory Board adopted a number of principles to guide their work together, including that consumers will be placed in the centre of considerations and that the National Anti-Scam Centre will seek to integrate existing initiatives and avoid duplication.
The Advisory Board acknowledged the need for a consistent approach across the public and private sectors for defining and naming scams. Consistency will make it easier for consumers to report scams and facilitate seamless data sharing between organisations to increase the speed of disruption. Members agreed to develop a naming convention for scams to underpin the National Anti-Scam Centre's data sharing technology and analytics, which will be critical to determining how best to disrupt scams.
The Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Stephen Jones MP, and ACCC Deputy Chair, Catriona Lowe, welcomed Advisory Board members to the first meeting. The Advisory Board will be chaired by the ACCC Deputy Chair, Catriona Lowe.
Members appointed to the Advisory Board are:
- Anna Bligh, CEO, Australian Banking Association
- Andrew Williams, CEO, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
- Scott Lee, Assistant Commissioner, Australian Federal Police
- Andy White, CEO, Australian Payments Network
- Simon Callaghan, CEO, Blockchain Australia
- Alan Kirkland, CEO, CHOICE representing Consumers' Federation of Australia
- John Stanton, CEO, Communications Alliance
- Stephanie Tonkin, CEO, Consumer Action Law Centre
- Michael Lawrence, CEO, Customer Owned Banking Association
- Sunita Bose, Managing Director, Digital Industry Group Inc. (DIGI)
- Peter Gartlan, National Coordinator, Financial Counselling Australia
- David Lacey, Managing Director, IDCARE
A communique for the first Advisory Board meeting is available on the ACCC website.
The Advisory Board will meet monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for 14 August 2023.
Background
The National Anti-Scam Centre launched on 1 July 2023. The National Anti-Scam Centre will build capability and data sharing technology over the next three years.
The technology build will ultimately enable the National Anti-Scam Centre to:
- Receive a report of a scam from any institution (private or government) and centralise this intelligence.
- Distribute data to those who need it most - such as banks to freeze an account, telcos to block a call, digital platforms to take down a website or account.
- Analyse and act on the trends sourced from this data to disrupt scams and educate Australians.
