Australian govt to force banks to compensate scam victims

Canberra, July 31 – Australian banks will be forced to compensate customers who lose money to scams under new laws flagged by the government.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said current laws do too little to help scam victims get their money back, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said in many cases, Australians cannot be compensated for scam losses because they are being tricked into transferring money through authorised transactions, meaning they are not unlawful under the current laws.

“We will address this to ensure victims can receive compensation in the right circumstances,” Jones said.

The government, in July 2023, established the National Anti-Scam Center to lead a crackdown on scammers.

Jones said on Wednesday that the crackdown is having some success but that banks, telecommunications companies and digital platforms must take more preventative action.

Under the second stage of the government’s crackdown, banks, digital platforms, and telecommunications companies will face penalties if they do not conduct preventative checks under new mandatory codes to prevent scam losses.

“If there is a breach of the code, the bank, telco or digital platform will be held to account,” Jones said.

According to data published by the National Anti-Scam Centre in April, Australians lost a combined 2.74 billion Australian dollars ($1.79) to scams in 2023 — down 13.1 per cent from 2022.

People aged 65 and over were the only age group to lose more money to scams in 2023 than in 2022.

Investment scams caused the most financial damage, accounting for 47.4 per cent of all losses, followed by remote access scams and romance scams.