Scam Protection

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (15:11): My question is to the Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well. Can the minister update the house on action being taken to protect older South Australians from scams?

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services, Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well) (15:11): I thank the member for this question and also for her commitment to protecting the community. Some16,892 scams were reported in South Australia last year, with almost half of these reported by people aged over 55. Sadly, dodgy online and telephone operators see older people as targets to be fleeced and not as valued members of our community. This government led the nation when it came to helping young people stay safe online and I am pleased to advise the house that we are also looking out for older people.

In the past two months an illegal website was discovered calling itself The Seniors Assistant. Sadly, the only thing it assisted was taking people's personal details and then their money. It was asking people to hand over their information and pay $29 to lodge an application for a Seniors Card. To be clear, becoming a Seniors Card member is completely free and it gives you access to a range of discounts—we discussed this only yesterday—and deals include free 24-hour public transport, that this government introduced in July 2022 when we delivered on our election commitment.

The scam artists weren't stupid, they started doing this as people were waiting for the release of the new deals and discounts directory so more people would be searching online for information about Seniors Cards. The scam was discovered when our staff who process applications noticed requests being sent from a generic email and then noticed this same email popping up on multiple occasions.

Apologists for scam artists might suggest that this website was not all that bad because it was doing what it promised to do and that is submitting a person's application so that they actually got the Seniors Card, but we know from other scams that dodgy operators will often give an ounce of honesty to build some trust and then abuse the trust by suggesting they can now help with your banking, investments, or maybe even your love life.

The good news is that we will now never know how far they were going to take this because we smashed it pretty quickly. As soon as the scam was detected, the Seniors Card team in my department contacted the 70 people whose names were linked to the generic email addresses that were used by the scammers. They were all encouraged to contact their banks and report the situation to Scamwatch and the Australian Cyber Security Centre. My department also contacted Scamwatch and the Australian Cyber Security Centre who reported it to Microsoft, Google, the domain registrant, the IP host provider and the payment processing provider.

Staff collaborated with colleagues interstate because the dodgy site had also been targeting older people in Queensland and Victoria. This work resulted in the site being removed as the top search result on Google and a site warning being applied. This is not some little box in the corner of a screen; it is a full red screen, the type that you might be a bit worried about if it popped up at work. It appears before you on the web page telling you to watch out. When my staff tried to access the site recently, they could not even get through because it has actually been removed.

I commend my colleague the Minister for Consumer and Business Services, who does a huge amount of work in this area to protect many different groups in the community. We sadly cannot stop every scam, but it is a great result when we can identify something early and knock it over before more people get harmed. I want to assure the public that the Seniors Card is as good value as ever and is completely safe to apply for. Just go to seniorscard.sa.gov.au and it will go straight to my amazing team. You do not need a third party; it is free to apply. If anybody asks you to pay for the privilege, tell them to nick off and report it to the authorities.