The Albanese Government's targeted crackdown on scams has driven down annual reported scam losses by over $1 billion in the last two years.
The ACCC today released the National Anti‑Scam Centre's (NASC) latest Targeting Scams Report which found that scam losses in Australia fell by over 25 per cent to $2 billion in 2024.
The reduction in losses over 2024 shows the efforts by government, industry, law enforcement, consumers and community organisations are reducing the financial impact of scams on Australians.
The Albanese Government has the most comprehensive anti‑scam agenda anywhere in the world and is making Australia the toughest target for scammers.
The Government's investment of $180 million since coming to office is having a significant impact on the ability for criminal scammers to target Australians. Scam losses have dropped by a third, after doubling every year in the last term under the former Coalition Government.
The Government continues to deliver strategies to intercept and disrupt scammers. These efforts have meant less scam texts and calls, more fake websites removed, more warnings of suspicious activity, deployment of rapid taskforces targeting specific scams, and greater awareness among all Australians.
This program of work includes:
- Legislating the world‑leading Scams Prevention Framework, creating a whole‑of‑economy defence against scams, putting designated industries on the hook to protect Australians from harm.
- Establishing the National Anti‑Scam Centre (NASC), driving collaboration to combat scams, and leading taskforces that target particularly aggressive scams.
- Funding ASIC's takedown service, which has taken down over 10,000 investment scam websites and online advertisements.
- Establishing the mandatory SMS sender ID register to combat mass scam text messages hitting people's phones.
- Modernising our payments systems to ensure it remains safe and resilient, building more protections and security as a way of safeguarding Australians' payments.
While it is pleasing that losses have fallen, this is not job done. Losses remain too high, and every dollar lost by a consumer is a dollar too many, and it's not just the financial loss that causes such devastating harm.
Today, we also announce that we are strengthening the pathways for victims to seek compensation where wrongdoing has occurred.
Currently, scam victims can only raise a dispute with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) against the bank which sent the consumer's funds (the sending bank). A new ministerial direction by the Assistant Treasurer will enable AFCA to investigate culpability of the receiving bank on behalf of a scam victim. This will empower AFCA to investigate the actions of every bank in the scam chain.
AFCA will work with industry and consumer groups over coming months to finalise the implementation of this ministerial direction.
Under the Albanese Government, Australians are safer online and have the best protections in the world against scam activity.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones MP
"We made fighting scams a priority from day one and it's having a real and significant impact.
"Scammers are finding it harder and harder to get through our defences.
"We want Australians to enjoy the benefits of online commerce but have trust that they are protected against the criminals trying to get their hard‑earned money."
Quotes attributable to Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland MP
"The Albanese Government's innovative SMS Sender ID Register is helping to stop criminals from ripping Australians off through sophisticated text message scams.
"Fraudsters cause financial and immeasurable emotional and mental stress by impersonating legitimate organisations every day, but we are determined to do what we can to keep Australians safe.
"I look forward to our regulators and industry continuing to work together to strengthen protections for Australian consumers."
