ATO scammers set for defeat

The government says a new technology trial has comprehensively disrupted phone scammers’ business model.

ATO scammers are in the federal government's crosshairs, with communications minister Paul Fletcher declaring a recent technology trial has comprehensively defeated the scammers' business model.

The ATO received over 107,000 reports of impersonation scams in 2019, in which Australians received calls that appeared appeared to come from a legitimate phone number used by the ATO.

Communications minister Paul Fletcher told The Australian that at the government’s request, Australia’s telcos joined together with the ATO and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on a three-month trial of technology to block the scam calls appearing to originate from legitimate ATO phone numbers.

According to Mr Fletcher the ATO trial tested whether a Do Not Originate list may help reduce use of trusted brands to perpetuate scams, and eliminate impacts on innocent third parties.

He said the scammers use software to mislead users. Rather than transmitting the actual phone number the call is coming from – frequently an overseas number – instead they ‘overstamp’ it with another phone number.

In this scam, they used numbers which had been widely publicised by the ATO for use by Australians wanting to call the ATO.

"The trial used industry-wide network solutions to block scam calls made using ATO numbers on the Do Not Originate list," he said. "These solutions will remain in place for the ATO, it is my expectation that the Scam Taskforce will work with the telcos to extend the Do Not Originate list to other sectors, such as the finance sector and other government agencies.”

Mr Fletcher added that Australia's telcos continue to work to disrupt 'wangiri' scam calls (named after the Japanese term for one ring, and cut), and are proactively each reducing their identified scam call traffic.

“Communications Alliance is currently developing the Reducing Scam Calls industry code which places obligations on telcos to identify and block ‘high volume’ and ‘short duration’ scam calls and proposes new rules on telco providers to identify and block scam calls," he said.

"Evidence suggests that the majority of this scam traffic derives from overseas."

A recent report found Australians under 25 lost over $5 million to scams in 2019 and reports made from this age group are increasing faster than older generations.

In 2019, around 12,000 (7.15 per cent) reports made to ACCC’s Scamwatch platform were from people under the age of 25, an increase of 11 per cent compared to 2018 figures. Reports from this age group increased by 10 percentage points more than any other age group.

“Scammers don’t discriminate based on age and the wide-range of scams reported by this age group is concerning,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“Young people may think they are tech savvy, but scammers are adapting and we expect to see more scams on newer platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok.”