Australian Govt Will Force Banks To Compensate Scam Victims

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Australian banks will be forced to compensate customers who lose money to scams under new laws.
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said current laws do too little to help scam victims get their money back, Xinhua 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 in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra today.
The government in July 2023, established the National Anti-Scam Centre to lead a crackdown on scammers.
Jones said the crackdown is having some success but 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,” he said.
According to data published by the National Anti-Scam Centre in April, Australians lost a combined A$2.74 billion (RM8.58 billion) to scams in 2023 - down 13.1 percent 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 percent of all losses, followed by remote access scams and romance scams.
- Bernama

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