National Anti-Scam Centre

That’s a wrap for 2024 🥳 👋 We’re taking a short break over the festive season and will be back next month. During that time, consumers can still report scams and find useful information to help them spot and avoid scams on the Scamwatch website. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

ACCC Deputy Chair, Catriona Lowe reflects on our achievements this year and our plans to surpass expectations in 2025.

It’s a busy time of year and it’s easy for consumers to let their usual guards slip in the heat of the moment. Phone spoofing makes it seem like the call is coming from a legitimate source such as a government agency or bank. Please share these tips from the National Cyber Security Coordinator with your networks and help protect them from phone spoofing.

Our Job Scam Fusion Cell is a time-limited taskforce coordinating the disruption and prevention of scams targeting Australians looking for work and seeking additional income. We’ve almost hit the halfway point and we’re already seeing some positive results from our working groups with participants from government, law enforcement, recruitment, finance and social media. We’d like to thank all of the fusion cell participants for their collaboration and commitment to the Job Scam Fusion Cell so far. Meta, Google, Commonwealth Bank, TikTok, Indue, Telstra, TPG Telecom, CoinJar, Coinspot, Crypto.com, BTC Markets, Swyftx, Macquarie Group, Westpac, Chainalysis, ANZ, IDCARE, SEEK, LinkedIn, Adecco, Services Australia, MYER, QUT (Queensland University of Technology), TRM LabsQueensland Police Service, South Australia Police, NSW Police Force, Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police

Did you know a cyber attack happens every 6 minutes in Australia? The Australian Government's new Small Business Cyber Resilience Service offers free, personalised support. IDCARE, a not-for-profit organisation specialising in cyber support, delivers this service. Learn more on business.gov.au's website here: https://bit.ly/3BoS33e. #SmallBusinessCyberResilienceService

We’re renewing our warning about scammers lurking on social media platforms. According to Scamwatch reports, $58.3 million was stolen from 6,000 Australians through social media scams in the first 10 months of 2024. The top scam loss categories involving social media this year are investment scams ($39.2 million), romance scams ($9 million) and job scams ($4.5 million). We’re using the information reported to Scamwatch to sharpen the focus of our scam disruption activities. Our Job Scam Fusion Cell is coordinating government and industry efforts to crack down on job and employment scams. The fusion cell is already proving effective in disrupting the activities of criminal groups who are stealing from Australian job seekers by advertising or offering jobs that do not exist. In its first 3 months of operation, the fusion cell has taken down over 200 job scam websites, referred over 200 phone numbers for disruption, and is working with law enforcement, government agencies, and cryptocurrency platforms to freeze or restrict cryptocurrency wallets being used in job scams. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4foKDLr

We’re passionate about educating Australians about scams so they can protect themselves and others. In the search for new ways to spread anti-scam education, we met with the BBC this week to talk about how they optimised anti-scam messaging during their “Scam Safe Week” in the UK. The inspirational BBC team shared how they leveraged their celebrity TV and radio programmes to reach people where they are, in language that's engaging and with resources that are useful for their target audiences. Thank you to the team for sharing terrific insights and ideas on the innovative ways they are building consumer awareness of scams. We look forward to continuing to share and learn with our international partners in the fight against scams.

This International Day of People with Disability we recognise that some people living with disability can be particularly vulnerable to scams. Our Little Book of Scams comes in an Easy Read version to help remove barriers for consumers to access tips and advice about how to identify and avoid scams. Share it with your networks today: https://bit.ly/41dB3aA

We’re urging shoppers to remain vigilant ahead of this weekend’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. As we enter our second year in operation, learn about how we’ve coordinated scam disruption activity across government, law enforcement and industry to protect Australians from scammers. Read about how we’re ramping up our efforts to protect Australians from scammers 👇 https://lnkd.in/ggUwgMKe

Scammers pretending to be from the Australian Taxation Office or myGov are targeting consumers to steal their personal information. Share this scam alert with your networks to help shut this scam down 👇