It feels like every day we hear another story of an Australian whose life has been upended by scammers—by criminals, because that’s what they are. They aren’t opportunists; they’re organised criminal groups that make use of any and all technologies to steal money from Australians at every age, from every demographic. It is despicable stuff.
We are all vulnerable to scams. Last year Australians lost more than $2.7 billion to scams, and that’s just the scams that are reported, with many more going unreported. As we have heard in this chamber today, many people are embarrassed to report them. My office hears from so many people who have lost money to scams, many amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Take the story of Nola and Ray Holden, a couple living in Bonegilla in my electorate, who were victims of a horrendous scam in April this year. After scammers accessed the Holdens’ bank details, they made 85 transactions of $990 each to foreign bank accounts over the next 24 hours. That added up to $120,000 stolen from their account in just one day. As the Holdens’ family doctor has told me—he is assisting the Holdens in this matter—’at no point in time did Bendigo Bank alert the Holdens or put a freeze on their bank accounts.’ Even though the scam put Ray and Nola’s account tens of thousands of dollars into overdraft, the bank did nothing. What I find particularly shocking is that the bank, even after being alerted to the scam, began charging the Holdens $700 per month in interest because of the overdraft debts. While the bank has now paused interest payments after intervention from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, the Holdens tell me that the bank is now seeking to recover the funds from their estate when they die or sell the farm they have lived on for decades. That’s almost as despicable as the scam itself.
Thinking of the Holdens’ story, it’s hard to quantify the impacts beyond the financial loss. There are the mental impacts and the sense of shame that many victims of scams feel. Many experience ongoing trauma and a loss of trust that can impact many areas of their lives. Like so many other MPs in this place, I have met many families like the Holdens and I know that it could can happen to any one of us. So we must do more. This government must not be complacent, because the scammers certainly won’t be.
Fortunately, when I welcomed the Assistant Treasurer to Myrtleford and Benalla earlier this year, I sensed that he is well aware of the scale of this challenge. I commend the government for much of its work in this space. The creation of the National Anti-Scam Centre has made a difference. The creation of the SMS Sender ID Registry should help every Australian who is constantly receiving scam text messages purporting to be from anyone from the ATO, Australia Post or other trusted organisations.
As an Independent member of this place it’s my job to keep pushing the government to keep going, to do everything it can in the fight against scams. That’s why it’s so essential that the government put in place a mandatory scams code before the next election. The proposed framework will create minimum, consistent obligations for businesses to prevent, detect, disrupt and respond to scams. The Holdens wouldn’t have lost more than $100,000 if their bank had had better processes in place, and with no mandatory code there’s no incentive to protect customers and no consequences when they fail to do so. I support a mandatory code, because this can’t be a battle for individuals alone. Big businesses like the banks and tech giants must pull their weight in the fight against scams. If they won’t come to the table then I support the government bringing them to the table and using their influence and heft to stop more scams at the source.
The Assistant Treasurer has committed to introducing this legislation before the end of the year, and I intend to hold the government to that timeline, because the government must keep moving. The fight against scams is not done. You do not make one change and expect it to be fixed. Scammers will continue to adapt. They will shift and change with technology and exploit the vulnerabilities of our people. The explosion of freely available generative AI is a new frontier and shows us that we must be vigilant. It is a role for all of us in this place to ensure that the Commonwealth government fights to protect Australians from the scourge of scams.