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Businesses should join forces and share data to advance the fight against increasingly sophisticated scams, according to the Australian National Anti-Scam Centre.
The call came amid a rise in losses from phishing scams, which increased from A$4.6m ($3.0m) in the first four months of 2024 to A$13.7m in the same period in 2025, driven by ballooning losses to social media-based scams.
The figures shed light on the evolving nature of scams as criminals change tactics to stay ahead of law enforcement.
Social media scams have risen, whereas phone-based scams appear to be in decline, with an 11 per cent drop in reports compared to early 2024 – although they still account for the highest overall financial losses of any contact method.
Although scams are declining in number, dropping 24 percent, they are taking heavier losses, which increased by 28 percent to nearly A$119m compared to the same time last year.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe said that although the average and median losses per victim had slightly decreased, the rise in overall financial loss and the number of people affected are a reminder to stay alert.
“Scams are affecting Australians of all ages, often beginning with an unprompted or unexpected contact via social media and other digital platforms.”
Incidents of losses to social media scams were up nearly 50 percent, rising from from 2,232 in early 2024 to to 3,336 in early 2025, with overall losses to these scams rising by 30 percent to $23.4 million.
The number of people reporting losses to scams where the initial contact occurred via digital channels including websites, email and mobile apps also increased.
“Our approach to scam prevention is grounded in partnership,” added Lowe.
“Sharing information is a key step towards improving community safety – organisations, such as banks, digital platforms, and telecommunication companies, can help disrupt scams faster and reduce the harm they cause.”
A joined-up approach
Australia has a comprehensive anti-fraud strategy, focusing on prevention, public education and intelligence.
Lowe stressed the importance of gathering data in law enforcement’s efforts at fighting scams: “The work of our fusion cells has demonstrated that a piece of data that may be unremarkable on its own, when joined with other pieces of data, can form powerful intelligence. With data held across the ecosystem, sharing data with the National Anti-Scam Centre enables those vital connections to be made.”
Australia’s battle against scams is built on a legislative framework that lawmakers have described as the "world’s toughest" anti-scam laws.
As covered by Vixio, in February 2025, the Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2025 passed through both houses of the Australian parliament.
A foundational piece of legislation in the country’s fight against scams, the framework has been designed to expand to other sectors as scam tactics evolve, and is part of broader efforts to modernise Australia’s laws for the digital age, addressing privacy, cybersecurity and payment system reforms.
The bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to establish multi-sector scam prevention standards targeting banks, telcos and social media companies.
If businesses fail to uphold these standards, they can be issued civil penalties of up to A$50m per offence.
By bringing a broader range of businesses within the regulatory perimeter, the authorities hope to identify more scams before individual consumers suffer losses.
However, Australia’s government has so far resisted introducing a UK-style mandatory reimbursement model for scam victims, arguing that an industry code for key sectors offers a more "extensive" solution.
