‘Enough is enough’: Banks ramp up attack on tech giants over scams

Australian banks have called out Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for enabling scammers to use its social media platforms to lure victims and facilitate money laundering, in an escalation of their attack on tech giants for “avoiding responsibility” in tackling scams.

The Commonwealth Bank and Westpac published more than a dozen screenshots of scam activity on Facebook and accused Meta of failing to remove pages and posts even after they had been flagged as fraudulent, in their submissions to a parliamentary inquiry examining the government’s planned anti-scam laws.

Banks have called out Facebook’s parent company, Meta, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, for shunning its responsibility in fighting scams. Credit: AP

The proposed legislation will impose fines of up to $50 million on banks, mobile networks and social media companies that fail to act on preventing scams. But the tech giants’ lobby group DIGI has claimed banks should be entirely responsible for refunding Australians who lose billions of dollars to fraudulent schemes every year.

Westpac customer and corporate services group executive Carolyn McCann, who oversees fraud and scam prevention at the bank, blasted “foreign tech companies” for shunning their responsibilities in fighting criminals fleecing Australians.

She revealed she had written to local Meta managing director Will Easton last year about hundreds of scams on Facebook that she claimed were not removed even after she had flagged them as fraudulent several times on the social media platform.

“It’s extraordinary that foreign tech companies are trying to claim they have no role to play,” McCann said in an interview. “More than 50 per cent of scams start on these platforms. Banks are doing their bit, telcos are doing their bit. Why should social media giants be any different?”

A parliamentary committee will on Tuesday hear from various groups, including the Australian Banking Association, Choice and DIGI, on the Scams Prevention Framework Bill, before handing down their report early next week.

ABA chief executive Anna Bligh demanded tech giants take more steps to stop scam ads from being promoted on their platforms.

“Enough is enough,” Bligh said. “If digital platforms are serious about protecting Australians, they should be doing more to ensure people aren’t being exposed to scams in the first place.”

The Albanese government’s proposed anti-scam reforms would not follow the British model, in which banks are required to reimburse scam victims in most cases. Instead, the proposed laws would aim to share the responsibility between banks, tech platforms and telcos.

While the banks and telcos have called for an economy-wide approach and asked the Commonwealth to apportion proportionate liability on each industry, tech giants say they are not “an equal vector as the banking and telecommunications sector in relation to scams”.

Almost 250,000 scams, amounting to $3.2 billion in losses, were reported in 2024, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre. The top contact methods were emails, text messages and phone calls.

Westpac’s submission said social media platforms were avoiding responsibility “by doing no more than the bare minimum of what their world-leading technology is capable of”. It called out Meta for using sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence to deliver hyper-targeted content and advertising, but refusing to expand that feature to scams on its site.

In October, Westpac identified – and reported to Meta – a Facebook page that appeared to be running an investment scam. The page was still live on Monday, with one comment seen by this masthead stating “this company are scammers”.

Westpac and CBA also published multiple screenshots of Facebook accounts advertising to “buy or sell bank accounts” for muling purposes, with Westpac accusing Meta of allowing “fraudulent behaviour … to run rampant across its platform”.

A scam ad featuring singer Guy Sebastian. When this screenshot was taken, the ad had been live for 13 hours.Credit: Meta Ad Library

Money mules are recruited by scammers to receive funds into their bank accounts. They then withdraw the money and send it to a designated account using a wire transfer service.

One active Facebook group, titled Gameing rent bank account, had 2600 members and advertised itself as a “trusted person come genuine geming platform commission besis work daily payout USDT or INR ALSO available”.

In a post, the group administrator said they were looking for people with ANZ Plus and Bankwest accounts. “I pay you via payid after I login to the bank no delays,” the administrator posted, according to a screenshot released by CBA. “I’m in Australia and I’ll always try to give you a good price”.

CBA said the examples it had cited demonstrated why social media companies such as Meta “need to do more to help prevent scams and money laundering”.

“It is imperative for digital platforms to be part of Australia’s ecosystem approach to combatting scams and protecting consumers and small businesses who use their platforms,” CBA wrote.

Communications Alliance chief executive Luke Coleman will tell Tuesday’s inquiry it supports a cross-sector approach to tackling scams.

DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said tech giants had already adopted an Australian Online Scams Code to demonstrate their commitment to tackling scams.

“While the digital industry supports strong sectoral legal obligations under the scams bill to protect against scams, no one can confidently explain when companies are liable for a scam under the scheme because those key details haven’t been worked out before we’re legislating,” Bose said.

“With dozens of companies involved in any one scam, that confusion will frustrate consumers - unlike in the UK or the proposal in Singapore, where a consumer knows exactly where to go to get redress.”

Meta was contacted for comment.

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