Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on scams and how they are affecting our nation each and every day. From phone calls to emails to texts and on social media, scams attack us in various ways. I want to raise awareness around them. I know we've all had those phone calls asking about our electricity bills or health insurance from people in crowded offices. Almost everyone has had a scam experience before. Most scams financially harm the victim. We need to educate people not to give credit card numbers, personal information, location, or even text codes, away online, to make sure that they protect themselves.

People in my own electorate have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from scams. Nationally, in 2024, over $92 million was lost from almost 100,000 reported scams. That's an astounding number when you think about it. Hardworking people are losing money that they have paid tax on; it's taken them a long time to earn that money, and it can be gone like that.

Scammers are taking advantage of new technology, products and services, and major events. They use them to create believable stories that can give them your money and personal details. There are numerous types of scams. To list just a few, there are: investment scams, false billing scams, jobs and employment scams, threats to life, threats of arrest, identity theft, online shopping scams and dating and romance scams. So deciphering scams can be quite difficult.

I recently met with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority to discuss a range of topics solely related to scams. They told me that they've dealt with 100,000 complaints in the last 12 months and that 1,251 of those complaints were from the Petrie electorate, which is higher than normal. Four per cent of those were from small businesses and 96 per cent were from individuals. Four hundred and fifty complaints were about banks; 260 complaints were about general insurers; 172 were about credit providers. There were about 130 complaints in relation to scams themselves.

Now, not every complaint that the Australian Financial Complaints Authority receives is upheld. In some of the complaints that people have put in, it was just bad luck; they weren't entitled to receive the money. But I would encourage people within my own electorate: if you think you're being scammed or if you've got a complaint about finances—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

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More people, more Australians, with scam experiences haven't reported them. The government could be doing a lot more here in relation to scams. They could be advertising to Australians about some of the dangers around scams instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on things like tax cuts that the coalition legislated. Always stop, think and check before you act.

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