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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-22 Daily Xml
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BUSINESS SCAMS

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Consumer Affairs about scams.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Scams take in people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels. In fact, I have asked a question about scams in this place recently. There is no one group of people who are more likely to become a victim of a scam. Even if we think we are too clever to fall for a scam, we sometimes take risks that scammers can take advantage of.

Scams can also be designed to steal personal details. The types of personal information that scammers might ask for include credit card and bank account details, passport details and name and address details. Amazingly, at least to me, some people give away these personal details when really alarm bells should be going off when such a request is made. Will the minister advise the chamber of how consumers can protect themselves from scams and also inform us about current scams affecting members of the community?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:47): I thank the member for his important question. Indeed, this is an ongoing challenge, as members know. The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (OCBA) provides advice and warnings to the public in relation to a wide range of different scams. Warnings are usually published through a media release with information on specific schemes available through the Consumer Affairs telephone advisory service and on the OCBA internet site. OCBA also publishes a booklet advising consumers on how to spot scans and avoid getting caught.

Greater use of email and SMS technology means that even more consumers can be readily targeted by fraudulent operators. However, thankfully, consumers are becoming increasingly more aware of these new types of approaches. Members may recently have heard about a couple of scams and I would like to draw them to their attention. I understand that scammers are cold-calling consumers on the telephone in an effort to obtain money by deception. I am advised that, in some instances, consumers have received an anonymous call purporting to be from an authorised bank re-claim agency. The agent asks for bank account details and advises that for a particular payment fee they will arrange for the return of bank fees that the consumer has paid for over the last few years.

I have also been told that these scammers may also profess to be from a government agency or a law firm and advise that consumers have a tax refund claim due to an overpayment of taxes. Obviously, as it is tax time at the moment, I urge members to be particularly careful not to be vulnerable to that sort of approach.

In addition, I understand that some cold-calling tactics are now being employed by anonymous callers offering consumers investment opportunities connected to a range of different enterprises. The investment opportunities are often claimed to be associated with enterprises that evoke some type of emotional response or connection such as the Country Fire Service or childhood cancer foundations.

It is not just phone calls that lead to scams. As I said, another common scam tool is the use of SMS (text messages on mobile phones). Commonly, SMS scams involve claims that consumers have won money or prizes, and the aim of these scammers is to have consumers provide them with their personal details or money, or a bank account that they can transfer the prize winnings into. I understand that most recently scammers targeted consumers wanting to acquire tickets to the FIFA World Cup.

Consumers obviously need to be aware of anyone calling or texting them, unsolicited and out of the blue, with such offers. They should always conduct some form of check at least before agreeing to part with any of their hard-earned money or, for that matter, any of their personal information. Remember: if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

Complaints about both scams and schemes are ongoing, and OCBA works in conjunction with the ACCC as well as the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce not only to identify such scams but also to warn the public of those types of scams. The ACCC also operates the SCAMwatch website, which was created to assist people to help recognise and report scams and to protect consumers from them. The website is located at scamwatch.gov.au and encourages the public to educate themselves and report scams. I encourage people to go online and have a look at that site.

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