Latest news with #ScamsPreventionFramework
Sky News AU
17-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
'My heart dropped': Aussie tradie reveals how falling victim to one email scam saw him lose his entire $110,000 home deposit
A young Aussie tradie has shared how he lost his $110,000 first-home deposit after falling victim to a devastating email scam. Electrician Louis May was aged 23 when he saved enough to purchase his first home by working 10-hour shifts, six days a week, for years. He finally found an affordable apartment within his budget at the age of 24 and was "very excited" to be moving into his own home. Louis was tech-savvy, so when he received an email from who he thought was his lawyer, he never thought it would result in him losing his $110,000 house deposit. Louis' lawyer had contacted him using two different email addresses throughout his home purchase process. Therefore, he wasn't surprised when he received another email from a third account instructing him to complete a Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) form. 'I got sent a PEXA form that instructed me to transfer money into a BSB and account number into an ANZ account,' Louis told SBS Insight on Monday. "I didn't really think much of it. I had corresponded for a few days with the new third email address." Louis followed the instructions in the email and checked in with his bank before transferring $110,000 into the ANZ account. However, on the day of his property settlement his lawyer called to inform him that the agreed-upon $110,000 wasn't in his account. "When I said: 'I did what you had told me', and he said 'I'd never emailed you a PEXA form', my heart dropped," Louis said. "That was the moment that I realised I was scammed." In 2024, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) urged people to verify payment details directly with a business before paying an emailed invoice, amid a rise in losses due to payment scams. Australians in 2023 reported losing $16.2 million to scams like the one that caught Louis, with the amount lost per scam being significantly higher than in 2022. 'Scammers are sophisticated criminals and are becoming more targeted in how they exploit Australian consumers and businesses,' ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said. 'These criminals are posing as genuine businesses that a consumer has recently dealt with, sending fake invoices with altered payment details so that the money ends up with the scammer.' 'This scam is hard to detect because the scammer will either hack into the email system of the business or impersonate the business's email address by changing as little as one letter." Ms Lowe advised people to take the time to call the business on the number they have found to confirm the payment details are correct. In February, Australia introduced the Scams Prevention Framework, imposing obligations on businesses in key sectors where scammers operate, like banks, mobile networks, and social media companies. These sectors are required to take reasonable steps to prevent, detect, disrupt, respond to, and report scams, or face fines of up to $50 million. As for Louis, he was unable to recoup his losses, with his bank offering him a remediation payment of $1,000, which he declined. He was still able to settle on his apartment thanks to a loan from a family member. However, he is now paying an additional $600 a month in interest because he had to take out a larger mortgage, with the ordeal leaving him "pretty heartbroken".
The Advertiser
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Why consumer trust matters more than ever
In a fast-changing economy, consumer trust isn't just a virtue - it's a necessity. Whether you're buying a fridge, downloading an app, or applying for a mortgage, you're taking a leap of faith that the product will do what it claims, the terms will be fair, and someone will listen if things go wrong. Trust is the invisible infrastructure of the modern marketplace. Strip it away, and what remains is a minefield of confusion, caution and exploitation. When people stop believing the system works for them, they disengage. And when bad actors go unchallenged, good businesses suffer, too. Australia has made real strides in building trust through strong consumer protection. The Australian Consumer Law, introduced in 2011, brought together a tangle of federal, state and territory rules into a single national framework. Since then, protections have expanded - unfair contract terms are now banned, consumer guarantees are better enforced, and regulators have more tools to hold businesses to account. But markets don't stand still. And nor can our laws. MORE OPINION: Today, technology has transformed the way we live and shop. Global platforms dominate online commerce. Artificial intelligence increasingly determines what ads we see, what prices we're offered, even which products we're shown in the first place. With these advances come opportunities - but also new risks. AI, for all its potential, raises serious questions for consumer protection. What happens when a chatbot gives dangerously wrong advice? When a recommendation algorithm steers vulnerable users toward harmful content? Or when a company uses machine learning to nudge people into purchases they later regret? That's why the Australian government is working to ensure our legal frameworks keep pace with our technological ones. We're reviewing how AI-enabled products and services are regulated, with a view to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness. We're also introducing civil penalties for breaches of consumer guarantees - because rights without consequences are just suggestions. We're improving the Unit Pricing Code, so shoppers can easily compare the real value of groceries. And we're rolling out a Scams Prevention Framework that places obligations on banks, telcos and digital platforms to detect and prevent scams, not just clean up after them. Meanwhile, our regulators are stepping up enforcement in the sectors where trust is most fragile. With targeted government funding, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is focusing on competition and fair trading issues in the supermarket and retail sectors, including misleading pricing and abuse of market power. Its compliance priorities include tackling greenwashing, protecting vulnerable NDIS users, and cracking down on manipulative digital practices. Too often, the worst harms occur when companies grow too dominant or operate in spaces where oversight is weak. Take the example of a remote Indigenous community, where an elderly woman walked into a Telstra store seeking a basic mobile phone. She walked out with multiple postpaid contracts she didn't understand, and monthly bills she couldn't afford. The Federal Court later fined Telstra $50 million for unconscionable conduct. In another case, Meta subsidiaries were fined $20 million after marketing an app that claimed to protect user data while secretly harvesting it. Apple was fined $9 million for telling customers they weren't eligible for repairs after using third-party technicians - a claim that flew in the face of Australian law. And when Hungry Jack's included a toy in a children's meal without the required button battery warning, it was penalised for breaching safety standards. These rules exist for a reason: to protect families from serious harm. These aren't fringe operators. They're household names. And their conduct was made possible by market power, information asymmetry, and the assumption that no one was watching. Consumer protection is sometimes seen as a sideline to "serious" economic reform. But in truth, it's central to how modern economies function. When markets reward deception, not value; when fine print outweighs fairness; when firms grow too dominant to care - the entire system suffers. That's why competition policy and consumer policy must work hand in hand. A competitive market isn't just about lower prices. It's about higher standards. It's about firms knowing they'll lose customers if they don't do the right thing - and that regulators will step in if they cross the line. This is particularly urgent in the digital economy. As AI systems become more powerful, the risk of opaque decisions, embedded bias and automated unfairness grows. Scams are becoming more sophisticated, with deepfakes and spoofed messages designed to exploit even the savvy. "Dark patterns" - manipulative website designs that make it hard to cancel, return or say no - are becoming increasingly common. Globalisation, too, has complicated enforcement. Many online platforms operate across jurisdictions, making redress harder and regulation slower. To meet these challenges, we need laws that are modern, regulators that are empowered, and markets that reward ethical behaviour. We also need cooperation. Consumer protection can't be achieved by government alone. It requires collaboration between regulators and researchers, businesses and advocates, technologists and policymakers. It means listening to real consumers, not just corporate lobbyists. It means designing systems that are built for trust - and proving worthy of that trust, again and again. At its best, consumer protection doesn't just stop bad behaviour. It shapes the kind of economy we want to live in - one that rewards integrity, encourages innovation, and treats fairness not as a luxury, but as a baseline. In the end, every tap of a card, every "I agree" clicked, is a small act of trust. Australians deserve to know that the system will live up to it. In a fast-changing economy, consumer trust isn't just a virtue - it's a necessity. Whether you're buying a fridge, downloading an app, or applying for a mortgage, you're taking a leap of faith that the product will do what it claims, the terms will be fair, and someone will listen if things go wrong. Trust is the invisible infrastructure of the modern marketplace. Strip it away, and what remains is a minefield of confusion, caution and exploitation. When people stop believing the system works for them, they disengage. And when bad actors go unchallenged, good businesses suffer, too. Australia has made real strides in building trust through strong consumer protection. The Australian Consumer Law, introduced in 2011, brought together a tangle of federal, state and territory rules into a single national framework. Since then, protections have expanded - unfair contract terms are now banned, consumer guarantees are better enforced, and regulators have more tools to hold businesses to account. But markets don't stand still. And nor can our laws. MORE OPINION: Today, technology has transformed the way we live and shop. Global platforms dominate online commerce. Artificial intelligence increasingly determines what ads we see, what prices we're offered, even which products we're shown in the first place. With these advances come opportunities - but also new risks. AI, for all its potential, raises serious questions for consumer protection. What happens when a chatbot gives dangerously wrong advice? When a recommendation algorithm steers vulnerable users toward harmful content? Or when a company uses machine learning to nudge people into purchases they later regret? That's why the Australian government is working to ensure our legal frameworks keep pace with our technological ones. We're reviewing how AI-enabled products and services are regulated, with a view to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness. We're also introducing civil penalties for breaches of consumer guarantees - because rights without consequences are just suggestions. We're improving the Unit Pricing Code, so shoppers can easily compare the real value of groceries. And we're rolling out a Scams Prevention Framework that places obligations on banks, telcos and digital platforms to detect and prevent scams, not just clean up after them. Meanwhile, our regulators are stepping up enforcement in the sectors where trust is most fragile. With targeted government funding, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is focusing on competition and fair trading issues in the supermarket and retail sectors, including misleading pricing and abuse of market power. Its compliance priorities include tackling greenwashing, protecting vulnerable NDIS users, and cracking down on manipulative digital practices. Too often, the worst harms occur when companies grow too dominant or operate in spaces where oversight is weak. Take the example of a remote Indigenous community, where an elderly woman walked into a Telstra store seeking a basic mobile phone. She walked out with multiple postpaid contracts she didn't understand, and monthly bills she couldn't afford. The Federal Court later fined Telstra $50 million for unconscionable conduct. In another case, Meta subsidiaries were fined $20 million after marketing an app that claimed to protect user data while secretly harvesting it. Apple was fined $9 million for telling customers they weren't eligible for repairs after using third-party technicians - a claim that flew in the face of Australian law. And when Hungry Jack's included a toy in a children's meal without the required button battery warning, it was penalised for breaching safety standards. These rules exist for a reason: to protect families from serious harm. These aren't fringe operators. They're household names. And their conduct was made possible by market power, information asymmetry, and the assumption that no one was watching. Consumer protection is sometimes seen as a sideline to "serious" economic reform. But in truth, it's central to how modern economies function. When markets reward deception, not value; when fine print outweighs fairness; when firms grow too dominant to care - the entire system suffers. That's why competition policy and consumer policy must work hand in hand. A competitive market isn't just about lower prices. It's about higher standards. It's about firms knowing they'll lose customers if they don't do the right thing - and that regulators will step in if they cross the line. This is particularly urgent in the digital economy. As AI systems become more powerful, the risk of opaque decisions, embedded bias and automated unfairness grows. Scams are becoming more sophisticated, with deepfakes and spoofed messages designed to exploit even the savvy. "Dark patterns" - manipulative website designs that make it hard to cancel, return or say no - are becoming increasingly common. Globalisation, too, has complicated enforcement. Many online platforms operate across jurisdictions, making redress harder and regulation slower. To meet these challenges, we need laws that are modern, regulators that are empowered, and markets that reward ethical behaviour. We also need cooperation. Consumer protection can't be achieved by government alone. It requires collaboration between regulators and researchers, businesses and advocates, technologists and policymakers. It means listening to real consumers, not just corporate lobbyists. It means designing systems that are built for trust - and proving worthy of that trust, again and again. At its best, consumer protection doesn't just stop bad behaviour. It shapes the kind of economy we want to live in - one that rewards integrity, encourages innovation, and treats fairness not as a luxury, but as a baseline. In the end, every tap of a card, every "I agree" clicked, is a small act of trust. Australians deserve to know that the system will live up to it. In a fast-changing economy, consumer trust isn't just a virtue - it's a necessity. Whether you're buying a fridge, downloading an app, or applying for a mortgage, you're taking a leap of faith that the product will do what it claims, the terms will be fair, and someone will listen if things go wrong. Trust is the invisible infrastructure of the modern marketplace. Strip it away, and what remains is a minefield of confusion, caution and exploitation. When people stop believing the system works for them, they disengage. And when bad actors go unchallenged, good businesses suffer, too. Australia has made real strides in building trust through strong consumer protection. The Australian Consumer Law, introduced in 2011, brought together a tangle of federal, state and territory rules into a single national framework. Since then, protections have expanded - unfair contract terms are now banned, consumer guarantees are better enforced, and regulators have more tools to hold businesses to account. But markets don't stand still. And nor can our laws. MORE OPINION: Today, technology has transformed the way we live and shop. Global platforms dominate online commerce. Artificial intelligence increasingly determines what ads we see, what prices we're offered, even which products we're shown in the first place. With these advances come opportunities - but also new risks. AI, for all its potential, raises serious questions for consumer protection. What happens when a chatbot gives dangerously wrong advice? When a recommendation algorithm steers vulnerable users toward harmful content? Or when a company uses machine learning to nudge people into purchases they later regret? That's why the Australian government is working to ensure our legal frameworks keep pace with our technological ones. We're reviewing how AI-enabled products and services are regulated, with a view to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness. We're also introducing civil penalties for breaches of consumer guarantees - because rights without consequences are just suggestions. We're improving the Unit Pricing Code, so shoppers can easily compare the real value of groceries. And we're rolling out a Scams Prevention Framework that places obligations on banks, telcos and digital platforms to detect and prevent scams, not just clean up after them. Meanwhile, our regulators are stepping up enforcement in the sectors where trust is most fragile. With targeted government funding, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is focusing on competition and fair trading issues in the supermarket and retail sectors, including misleading pricing and abuse of market power. Its compliance priorities include tackling greenwashing, protecting vulnerable NDIS users, and cracking down on manipulative digital practices. Too often, the worst harms occur when companies grow too dominant or operate in spaces where oversight is weak. Take the example of a remote Indigenous community, where an elderly woman walked into a Telstra store seeking a basic mobile phone. She walked out with multiple postpaid contracts she didn't understand, and monthly bills she couldn't afford. The Federal Court later fined Telstra $50 million for unconscionable conduct. In another case, Meta subsidiaries were fined $20 million after marketing an app that claimed to protect user data while secretly harvesting it. Apple was fined $9 million for telling customers they weren't eligible for repairs after using third-party technicians - a claim that flew in the face of Australian law. And when Hungry Jack's included a toy in a children's meal without the required button battery warning, it was penalised for breaching safety standards. These rules exist for a reason: to protect families from serious harm. These aren't fringe operators. They're household names. And their conduct was made possible by market power, information asymmetry, and the assumption that no one was watching. Consumer protection is sometimes seen as a sideline to "serious" economic reform. But in truth, it's central to how modern economies function. When markets reward deception, not value; when fine print outweighs fairness; when firms grow too dominant to care - the entire system suffers. That's why competition policy and consumer policy must work hand in hand. A competitive market isn't just about lower prices. It's about higher standards. It's about firms knowing they'll lose customers if they don't do the right thing - and that regulators will step in if they cross the line. This is particularly urgent in the digital economy. As AI systems become more powerful, the risk of opaque decisions, embedded bias and automated unfairness grows. Scams are becoming more sophisticated, with deepfakes and spoofed messages designed to exploit even the savvy. "Dark patterns" - manipulative website designs that make it hard to cancel, return or say no - are becoming increasingly common. Globalisation, too, has complicated enforcement. Many online platforms operate across jurisdictions, making redress harder and regulation slower. To meet these challenges, we need laws that are modern, regulators that are empowered, and markets that reward ethical behaviour. We also need cooperation. Consumer protection can't be achieved by government alone. It requires collaboration between regulators and researchers, businesses and advocates, technologists and policymakers. It means listening to real consumers, not just corporate lobbyists. It means designing systems that are built for trust - and proving worthy of that trust, again and again. At its best, consumer protection doesn't just stop bad behaviour. It shapes the kind of economy we want to live in - one that rewards integrity, encourages innovation, and treats fairness not as a luxury, but as a baseline. In the end, every tap of a card, every "I agree" clicked, is a small act of trust. Australians deserve to know that the system will live up to it. In a fast-changing economy, consumer trust isn't just a virtue - it's a necessity. Whether you're buying a fridge, downloading an app, or applying for a mortgage, you're taking a leap of faith that the product will do what it claims, the terms will be fair, and someone will listen if things go wrong. Trust is the invisible infrastructure of the modern marketplace. Strip it away, and what remains is a minefield of confusion, caution and exploitation. When people stop believing the system works for them, they disengage. And when bad actors go unchallenged, good businesses suffer, too. Australia has made real strides in building trust through strong consumer protection. The Australian Consumer Law, introduced in 2011, brought together a tangle of federal, state and territory rules into a single national framework. Since then, protections have expanded - unfair contract terms are now banned, consumer guarantees are better enforced, and regulators have more tools to hold businesses to account. But markets don't stand still. And nor can our laws. MORE OPINION: Today, technology has transformed the way we live and shop. Global platforms dominate online commerce. Artificial intelligence increasingly determines what ads we see, what prices we're offered, even which products we're shown in the first place. With these advances come opportunities - but also new risks. AI, for all its potential, raises serious questions for consumer protection. What happens when a chatbot gives dangerously wrong advice? When a recommendation algorithm steers vulnerable users toward harmful content? Or when a company uses machine learning to nudge people into purchases they later regret? That's why the Australian government is working to ensure our legal frameworks keep pace with our technological ones. We're reviewing how AI-enabled products and services are regulated, with a view to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness. We're also introducing civil penalties for breaches of consumer guarantees - because rights without consequences are just suggestions. We're improving the Unit Pricing Code, so shoppers can easily compare the real value of groceries. And we're rolling out a Scams Prevention Framework that places obligations on banks, telcos and digital platforms to detect and prevent scams, not just clean up after them. Meanwhile, our regulators are stepping up enforcement in the sectors where trust is most fragile. With targeted government funding, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is focusing on competition and fair trading issues in the supermarket and retail sectors, including misleading pricing and abuse of market power. Its compliance priorities include tackling greenwashing, protecting vulnerable NDIS users, and cracking down on manipulative digital practices. Too often, the worst harms occur when companies grow too dominant or operate in spaces where oversight is weak. Take the example of a remote Indigenous community, where an elderly woman walked into a Telstra store seeking a basic mobile phone. She walked out with multiple postpaid contracts she didn't understand, and monthly bills she couldn't afford. The Federal Court later fined Telstra $50 million for unconscionable conduct. In another case, Meta subsidiaries were fined $20 million after marketing an app that claimed to protect user data while secretly harvesting it. Apple was fined $9 million for telling customers they weren't eligible for repairs after using third-party technicians - a claim that flew in the face of Australian law. And when Hungry Jack's included a toy in a children's meal without the required button battery warning, it was penalised for breaching safety standards. These rules exist for a reason: to protect families from serious harm. These aren't fringe operators. They're household names. And their conduct was made possible by market power, information asymmetry, and the assumption that no one was watching. Consumer protection is sometimes seen as a sideline to "serious" economic reform. But in truth, it's central to how modern economies function. When markets reward deception, not value; when fine print outweighs fairness; when firms grow too dominant to care - the entire system suffers. That's why competition policy and consumer policy must work hand in hand. A competitive market isn't just about lower prices. It's about higher standards. It's about firms knowing they'll lose customers if they don't do the right thing - and that regulators will step in if they cross the line. This is particularly urgent in the digital economy. As AI systems become more powerful, the risk of opaque decisions, embedded bias and automated unfairness grows. Scams are becoming more sophisticated, with deepfakes and spoofed messages designed to exploit even the savvy. "Dark patterns" - manipulative website designs that make it hard to cancel, return or say no - are becoming increasingly common. Globalisation, too, has complicated enforcement. Many online platforms operate across jurisdictions, making redress harder and regulation slower. To meet these challenges, we need laws that are modern, regulators that are empowered, and markets that reward ethical behaviour. We also need cooperation. Consumer protection can't be achieved by government alone. It requires collaboration between regulators and researchers, businesses and advocates, technologists and policymakers. It means listening to real consumers, not just corporate lobbyists. It means designing systems that are built for trust - and proving worthy of that trust, again and again. At its best, consumer protection doesn't just stop bad behaviour. It shapes the kind of economy we want to live in - one that rewards integrity, encourages innovation, and treats fairness not as a luxury, but as a baseline. In the end, every tap of a card, every "I agree" clicked, is a small act of trust. Australians deserve to know that the system will live up to it.
Canberra Times
29-06-2025
- Business
- Canberra Times
Why consumer trust matters more than ever
We're also introducing civil penalties for breaches of consumer guarantees - because rights without consequences are just suggestions. We're improving the Unit Pricing Code, so shoppers can easily compare the real value of groceries. And we're rolling out a Scams Prevention Framework that places obligations on banks, telcos and digital platforms to detect and prevent scams, not just clean up after them.
