Mobile phone companies could face up to $250,000 in fines for failing to comply with a new code to block SMS scam messages.
The code, registered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) on Tuesday, will require the companies to trace, identify and block SMS scam messages, and publish information for customers on how to identify and report scams.
The companies will also be required to share information about scams between each other and authorities.
According to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) data, SMS scams accounted for 32% of all reported scams this year to date, accounting for $6.5m in losses compared to $2.3m in the same period last year.
Acma is hopeful the new code on SMS scams will be as effective as a similar code for scam phone calls. In the 16 months since the code on scam calls was brought in, phone companies blocked more than 549m scam calls to Australian numbers, and the number of complaints about scam calls dropped significantly.
“There is no silver bullet to stop scams, but we know enforceable laws can have a significant impact and every blocked scam is a win for consumers. The harder we make it for scammers, the less Australians are likely to be targeted,” Acma chair Nerida O’Loughlin said in a statement.
“We expect to see SMS scams reduce as industry step up to do more to protect their customers.”
The ACCC’s annual scam report released last week found the call code had led to a 50% drop in complaints about scam calls in 2022, but the gap had been filled by SMS scams, most notably the Flubot scam that attempted to install malware on Android devices.
The ACCC said the scam, which tells the receiver they missed a call or have a new voicemail and provides a fake link to listen, was the largest scam text message operation in Australia’s history. Scamwatch received 26,496 reports about the messages, with $10,743 in losses reported.
The Flubot scam was disrupted last month by a global policing operating involving 11 agencies, including the Australian federal police. Investigations are still under way to identify who was behind the scam.
Scams where people impersonate a government agency or send a person a link designed to take over their device were still mostly conducted via scam calls, but the report found these scams were increasingly migrating to text message as the first point of contact.
One man reported to the consumer watchdog he had lost $4,500 after receiving a text message purporting to be from Amazon saying he had bought an expensive camera.
After calling the number in the message, the man was instructed to provide his two-factor authentication number over the phone. He then found his password had been changed on Amazon, and a laptop had been bought from his account.
