This Month
Person claiming to be Qantas hacker makes contact
One week after 6 million customers’ data was stolen by hackers, the airline says it has been contacted by a potential cybercriminal.
June
Sophisticated scams rise in the dark side of AI’s explosion
Cybercriminals used to baulk at hurdles to a successful ruse but AI is helping them win people’s confidence.
April
CBA customer wanted to buy $30k in bitcoin. The bank wouldn’t let him
Listen to recordings of Andrew Broadbent’s calls with CBA, which refused to let him make a transfer to buy $30,000 in bitcoin.
Westpac’s $50,000 call centre clash lands bank in PR nightmare
The lending giant thought it had detected a scam. But a customer is adamant he was denied access to his money with no explanation. And he’s gone public.
March
How to launder money and get away with it
Scamming operations mimic professional institutions, employing thousands of people in marketing, sales and human resources departments.
Inside the world of vigilante scam-baiters
They claim to fight for victims of online scammers, but are they really just trying to go viral?
AI squeezes the juice from data to stop scams
The technology can find patterns with greater accuracy and identify potential fraudulent transactions faster than any human.
January
‘Weak’ scam protections put trillions of super money at risk
Superannuation funds have been warned they are at risk of becoming “soft targets” for scammers.
Optus says tough new scam rules are ‘unworkable’
New rules to stop scams are “unworkable and ineffective”, Optus says. But billionaire Andrew Forrest wants the government to go further.
What it’s like to fall for a crypto scam
Christine Collins, 79, was unknowingly in the thrall of cryptocurrency scammers who had hacked her computer.
‘Scambaiters’ turn the tables – and police – on internet fraudsters
Vigilantes are devising elaborate ways to waste fraudsters time or trick them into revealing information about their operations that can be shared with authorities.
December 2024
ASIC sues HSBC Australia over slow scam response
ASIC claims some customers of the international bank lost $90,000 due to scammers, after warning it of suspicious activity on their accounts.
November 2024
An AI granny is phone scammers’ worst nightmare
Daisy Harris, an AI-generated grandmother, has been stymying fraudsters with meandering, time-wasting conversations. But can she actually make a dent in scams?
Coalition attacks Treasury’s failure to produce crypto protection laws
More than a year has elapsed since Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones promised crypto regulation, leaving gaping holes as more Australians pile into bitcoin and digital coins.
Verifiable credentials: Shorten’s ID push to stop scams
One of the nation’s biggest banks will help test the roll-out of trusted digital identities to stop scams and prevent data breaches of personal information.
October 2024
Scam reform lacks teeth
Australia has been a happy hunting ground for criminals running high-tech scams. New laws may not help consumers seeking compensation.
September 2024
Toughest anti-scam protections in the world unveiled
Banks, telcos and social media platforms will be required to put help for scam victims front and centre on their websites and boost call centre assistance under new proposed laws.
August 2024
Younger people overtake Boomers as biggest investment scam victims
More than half of investment scam victims last financial year were aged under 50, while a similar portion of the losses were in cryptocurrency, according to the AFP.
Forrest scores win in US Facebook scam ads case
Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest will now get chance to examine internal Meta documents and its AI software in his bid to prove Facebook helps scammers create fake ads featuring him.
AFP discovers 2000 compromised Australian cryptocurrency wallets
Hundreds of compromised accounts were discovered on crypto exchanges as part of a multi-nation effort dubbed Operation Spincaster.