Ms SPENCE (Yuroke) — (12 848) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, and the action I seek is for the minister to provide an update for Yuroke residents on what the government is doing to protect them from scams. As the minister is no doubt aware, scams cost Australians at least $300 million in 2016 alone, and that does not take into account scams not reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. This is an issue that affects every community. One recent local example involved residents receiving calls that appeared to come from the local police station demanding a sum of money. This no doubt caused significant distress for many local residents, with some contacting my office for advice. I know they and all residents of the Yuroke district would welcome information from the minister on this issue.

Response:

The government remains committed to addressing the growing problem of scams, particularly through education and advice to the Victorian community.

Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) is the lead agency providing education, information and advice on scams to Victorians, and is part of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT). This taskforce is made up of government regulatory agencies and departments in Australia and New Zealand that work alongside private sector groups, including banks, telecommunications companies, community groups and non-government partners. All of these agencies and partners work together to help prevent the public from being caught out by a scam or fraudulent activity.

Each year a number of scam education campaigns are held, targeting those most at risk. Scams have many variations and continue to become more sophisticated, which often makes them difficult to identify. Encouraging the community to provide information to agencies about scams is often the best defence against them, as this information can be used to help others recognise and avoid scams.

In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day this year, I warned people about romance and dating scams to help prevent scammers causing financial and emotional detriment. In February this year, CAV also led a national campaign to increase awareness of romance scams. This included media coverage, and supporting social media posts to ensure the message on how to avoid a scam was widely distributed.

National Fraud Week is an annual event and commenced in May. To tie in with Fraud Week, the ACFT ran a campaign to increase awareness of scams targeting Australians through social networking platforms.

In June, I officially launched a CAV campaign to raise awareness among older Victorians about staying safe online, alongside partners COTA Victoria, Crime Stoppers Victoria and the Public Libraries Network. Older Victorians were chosen as the target audience as they are the fastest-growing online user group in the country. The campaign focused on driving traffic to CAV’s scams awareness information through online advertising, as well as educating the community through scams presentations held at public libraries.

The innovative use of social media and online channels to help educate and protect Victorian consumers and businesses from scams has a broad reach. For example, information about avoiding scams is available in 23 languages on the CAV website, and ‘Stevie’s Scam School’ videos continue to help consumers and small business identify and avoid twelve common scams, while the online scams quiz allows consumers to test their knowledge.

We are committed to reducing scam-related harm and whenever there is scope or opportunity to disrupt scam activity, CAV will work with its partners to do so.

Hon Marlene Kairouz MP
Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation