This week the Assistant Treasurer will lead a delegation to Singapore to strengthen collaboration on our scammer crack down across the region.
The delegation includes representatives from the National Anti Scam Centre, the Australian Banking Association, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, the Customer Owned Banking Association, and Australian banks. The group will be joined by representatives from the Government of New Zealand and will meet with their Singaporean counterparts and leading business executives working on scam prevention.
The focus of the trip will be a mutual fact‑sharing exchange between Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on:
- scam trends and insights;
- Australian anti‑scam technology innovation;
- Singapore's strategies to disrupt scams from social media and search engines; and
- regulatory and industry approaches to addressing scams, including anti‑scams mandatory codes.
The Albanese Government is implementing a world‑leading anti‑scam plan to protect Australians, and it is showing positive early signs of success with scam losses decreasing for the first time since 2016.
While this shows we have the right approach, scam losses remain far too high and there is still more to do.
Scammers are malicious criminals often run through organised crime gangs in various parts of the world. A cross‑jurisdictional approach is vital to keeping people's money safe.
The delegation comes after the Assistant Treasurer attended the Global Fraud Summit in London in March this year. Ministers from eleven countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, committed their governments to collaborate on anti‑scam work to grow our capabilities.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones MP:
"Anyone with a phone or an internet connection would know that scammers are relentless in their pursuit to steal people's money.
"We want Australians to keep their money safe, so we are going after these criminals and smashing their scam activity.
"This is a transnational challenge so we are working closely with our partners in New Zealand and Singapore to take the fight up to the scammers.
"I look forward to sharing the strategies that are starting to work here in Australia and bring back new insights to continue our anti‑scam plan and keep people's money safe."
