Over 55 Million Scam Calls Since December Were Blocked by Australian Telcos 

In December ACMA has registered a set of rules developed by the Communications Alliance meant to force Australian telcos to detect, trace, and block spam and scam calls.

Where scam calls are confirmed, [carriers] must as soon as practicable take action to block the scam calls being originated and/or carried over their network.

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This means that the carriers have to look for characteristics of scam calls and also share information with other telcos and regulators as well as block numbers being used for scams like those from overseas.

In 2020, Australians lost AU$48 million to scam calls. The Morrison government is serious about tackling scams and it is pleasing to see that more than 55 million scam calls have been blocked as a result of the Reducing Scam Calls Code.

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Last month, Telstra, an Australian Telco operator said it was blocking approximately 6.5 million suspected scam calls a month, with an all-time high of 500,000 a day, thanks to automating the system. Starting in May, the company kicked off this initiative with DNS filtering and then extended it to blocking phishing text messages.

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Scams are not only targeted at the telco suppliers, with businesses reporting to lose more than AU$14 million due to payment redirection or business email compromise scams. 

Scammers tend to target new or junior employees, or even volunteers, as they are less likely to be familiar with their employer’s finance processes or the types of requests to expect from their supervisors.

We recommend organizations ensure their staff are well trained in the company’s payment processes and remain aware of payment redirection scams.

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It holds high importance how we are handling our phone calls and emails, and according to the Australian specialists’ people should hang up the phone if they feel they are being scammed and also pay a great deal of attention and double-check their email communications.