The Australian Communications and Media Authority is targeting misinformation and text scams during the next financial year.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said its “compliance priorities” target practices causing considering financial and social harm to the Australian community.
“SMS scams have risen sharply over the last year, and we will soon be registering new rules for telcos requiring them to track and block those messages,” O’Loughlin said.
“Online misinformation is also a growing cause for concern, so we will continue to review digital platforms’ performance under the recently implemented industry code and advise government on their effectiveness.”
Online scams are big business.
Between January 1 and May 1, Australians lost over $205 million to scams.
This marks a massive 166 per cent increase compared to the same five-month period last year, according to Scamwatch, who warn the actual number is likely to be closer to the one billion mark, as only an estimated 13 per cent of victims report their losses.
Telstra brought in a new SMS scam filter in April, that blocks such messages at the network level.
Telstra starting working on this feature after reports of malicious texts to Android devices leaped from just 50 in 2020, to over 11,000 last year.
According to Scamwatch, dodgy investment scams are the biggest drain on Aussies, making up $158 million of the $205 million, and jumping by 314 per cent year-on-year. Of these, $113 million are crypto…
