Industry Responses, Comments and Advice for Scam Awareness Week 2024

With online scams increasing to accelerate and with Ai increasingly entering the mix, it’s normal for even seasoned security-conscious people to fall victims to increasingly elaborate scams. With it being Scam Awareness Week, the following industry luminaries have chimed-in…

From Optus:

New data reveals Optus’ award-winning scam prevention technology, Call Stop has saved customers from losing up to an estimated $250 million to fraudsters.  

Since joining forces with the National Anti-Scam Centre and the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange, Call Stop has expanded to protect more consumers around the country. Call Stop intercepts and blocks calls to known scam numbers, preventing criminals from stealing money from Australians.

This Scams Awareness Week Optus is encouraging Australians to follow the government’s campaign theme: ‘Share a story, stop a scam’, to arm people with the tools they need to stay safe. 

Identifying a scam is made easier for Optus customers through Optus ScamWise which has seen nearly 90,000 customers reporting a suspicious text message in My Optus app. By providing customers with the visibility of trending scams and how many scam SMS and calls Optus is blocking on a weekly basis, customers can be on alert and share this information with their friends and family. 

Analysis of new Optus data has found that the top five trending scam categories for 2024 according to Optus ScamWise are: 

1. Tax 
   
   
2. Government impersonation 
   
   
3. Family impersonation 
   
   
4. Reward programs 
   
   
5. Bank suspension 

Optus’ scam blocking volume in 2024 reached an all-time high on 30 June due to a surge in scammers trying to capitalise on tax time and the end of financial year. On this day, Optus blocked more than 2.4 million SMS from its network.

Australian Financial Crimes Exchange Managing Director, David Pegley said that Call Stop, an Australian first initiative, has allowed the AFCX and the major banks to develop an “Intel loop” to share scam intelligence across the telco and social media industries to thwart bank impersonation attempts.

“We are proud to have collaborated with Optus on the groundbreaking work that went into Call Stop. As we know, shortening the time between detecting a scam and disrupting a scam means more Australians are protected. Call Stop led to the AFCX’s Anti-Scam Intel Loop, which enables banks and National Anti-Scam Centre to share scam intelligence with a larger number of telcos and a social media platform, so that more scam communications can be stopped before Australians are exposed to them”, said Mr Pegley. 

Optus’ Chair of Cyber Security and Data Science at UniSA, Dr Mamello Thinyane said, “There are new techniques and types of scams which are enabled by technology and recent AI developments, but none of the underlying mechanisms are really new. It’s the same old effect mechanisms such as deception (e.g. deepfakes, typo-squatting), authority (e.g. an email from the boss), social proof or conformity, distraction, and persuasion (e.g. the urgency, scarcity, baiting or quid pro quo).

“However, there is no doubt AI is having, and will continue to have, a transformative impact on online scams. AI is enabling cybercriminals to quickly generate malicious software, to produce appropriately crafted messages for phishing attacks, and to create deepfakes which can mimic people’s voices and faces in social engineering attacks.”

Optus’ Managing Director of Customer Solutions, Matt Williams said, “At a time when scammers continue to get more creative and aggressive in their attempts, Optus’ blocking systems and scam tools such as Call Stop and Optus ScamWise protect our customers.”

“We are seeing some consistent trends through Optus ScamWise. Typically, scammers won’t address the individual by name and they have a sense of urgency associated with what they are asking. A lot of the scams have spelling mistakes and the majority are requesting customers follow a link instead of accessing an app, which would be more secure.”

With programs and initiatives such as the Digital Thumbprint Program, SafeCall with Westpac and a targeted Cultural and Linguistically Diverse Awareness campaign, Optus is arming Australians with the right technologies, tools and education measures to help protect them against fraud. 

Mamello’s Tips to Fight off Scams:

1. Always verify. Make sure you verify who you are communicating with – request a piece of information which the person would know. Instead of following a link, type the URL and confirm it belongs to the right organisation. 
   
   
2. Pay attention and maintain focus. Keep an eye on information overload and attempts to distract you. If it doesn’t feel right or make sense, trust your instinct. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  
   
   
3. Take your time and make considered decisions. If you feel rushed into making a decision, don’t make it. 
   
   
4. Put in place standard online hygiene practices. Do not click unknown suspicious links, do not share your credentials with anyone, implement multi-factor authentication on your accounts, use a password manager and remember, the person at the end of the line could be a cybercriminal.

Through Optus’ blocking systems, including partnerships with the National Anti-Scam Centre, Australian Financial Crimes Exchange and the major banks, Optus blocked more than 23 million scam calls and 36 million scam SMS from circulation on its network last quarter. The National Anti-Scam Centre and Call Stop partnership has saved customers up to an estimated $203 million reduction in scam losses over the past eight months.

Key Facts

• In 2023, the number of scams reported increased by 18.5 percent to more than 600,000 with Australians losing $2.7 billion to scams alone. 
  
  
• On average, Australian scam victims lost an estimated $22,000 on bank scams where they suffered a financial loss in 2022, and $264,000 on investment scams such as term deposits in 2023.
  
  
• The National Anti-Scam Centre and Call Stop partnership has saved customers up to an estimated $203 million reduction in scam losses over the past eight months. 
  
  
• The Optus network blocks an average of 1.8 million calls and 2.8 million SMS per week.
  
  
• Optus blocked more than 23 million scam calls and 36 million SMS from circulation on its network last quarter.
  
  
• Optus Call Stop has saved Australians from losing up to an estimated $250 million to date.
  
   
• Optus’ scam blocking volume in 2024 reached an all-time high on 30 June 2024.
  
  
• Optus blocked more than 2.4 million SMS scams on 30 June 2024.
  
  
• Nearly 90,000 customers have reported suspicious text messages through Optus ScamWise.

Anthony Spiteri, Regional CTO APJ, Veeam

Scams Awareness Week highlights the critical role everyone plays in protecting against scams and other cyber threats. This collaborative mindset extends beyond the individual to business settings, as one human error can open the door to large-scale ransomware attacks. Concerningly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that 30 per cent of people don’t report the most serious scams.

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it is more important than ever to stay vigilant and proactively report suspicious activity, as AI can create convincing phishing emails, as well as deepfake videos and voice messages that are hard to detect. By promptly alerting others of a threat, vulnerabilities can be addressed and detection systems can be updated to monitor for similar threats in future.

Both individuals and businesses should also adopt a zero trust approach, whereby information should not be provided unless the person or organisation’s identity can be verified.

Finally, no threat protection plan is complete without a robust backup and recovery strategy. Veeam’s 2024 Data Protection Trends Report found that roughly 8 out of 10 organisations across APJ suffered at least one cyberattack in the previous year, stressing the importance of preparing to recover from an attack. Having secure and reliable backups ensures data remains accessible and restorable, allowing organisations to quickly restore operations and individuals to recover lost data.

Kumar Mitra, Managing Director ANZ at Lenovo ISG

While we urge consumers to remain vigilant against scams, businesses also bear a significant responsibility in safeguarding their customers amidst ever-evolving cybersecurity threats. This is especially critical for those of us operating in the data security and storage sectors.

Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group’s (ISG) latest Smarter Data Management Playbook underscores this urgency, revealing that data protection and cyber resiliency rank among the top challenges for ANZ CIOs. Moreover, nearly one-quarter of enterprises cite ‘complexity of data management’ as a major hurdle in their organizational data initiatives.

Scam Awareness Week plays a vital role in prompting Australians to consider who has access to their data. However, it equally serves as a call to action for businesses to invest in robust safeguarding measures, ensuring that data is not only appropriately but also securely stored, honoring the trust placed in them by their customers.

Australian businesses are making commendable strides in data protection, as the playbook highlights—data security will be a top priority for CIOs in 2024, with 30% of APAC organizations emphasizing its importance. This focus must continue as we navigate the challenges posed by emerging technologies.

Last Updated on September 9, 2024 by Nick Ross