Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I met with Jenny and Michael Yeo from Canterbury in my electorate. They described an extraordinarily sophisticated scam in which they lost $300,000 to Australian and international fraudsters. I'm also hearing from other constituents, from students to retirees, about the increase in financial scams in our community. The ACCC and ASIC have reported that Australians lost billions of dollars to fraudsters last year, an 80 per cent increase from 2021, and that at least 30 per cent of scams don't get reported. Australia's existing methods to combat financial crime related to scams are failing. I welcome the government's commitment to fund a national effort to prevent scams but it doesn't go far enough to prevent the sophisticated exploitation of bank accounts and payment systems that are central to the scam business model.

I support the Consumer Action Law Centre's call for the government to introduce a mandatory contingent reimbursement scheme for banks to ensure that blameless scam victims are completely reimbursed. In the UK, we have seen that this is effective in reducing scams because it incentivises banks to develop the schemes that we need for them to better manage our risk. We have to increase our resistance against financial scams. This is important for all Australians.