The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission plans to open its new National Anti-Scam Centre in July, when it will start the development of new data sharing technology designed to co-ordinate the activities of government and the private sector in detecting and preventing scams. The government announced in the budget last week that it will spend A$58 million over three years to establish the centre within the ACCC to improve scam data sharing and facilitate faster and more effective responses. Banks are expected to play a significant role in the centre’s work and have been put on notice that they need to do a better job detecting and preventing scams, as well as making more effort to support victims. The funding is part of a package of measures aimed at combatting scam and cyber crime. ASIC was allocated funding to allow it to identify and take down phishing websites and other sites that promote investment scams and the Australian Communications and Media Authority will receive funding to establish and enforce and SMS sender ID registry, aimed at impeding scammers seeking to spoof industry and government names in message headers. ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said the centre will work with ASIC as it develops its scam website takedown service and support ACMA as it sets up the SMS sender ID registry. Lowe said: “We’ll be using this funding to build the technology needed to support high-frequency data sharing with a range of agencies, law enforcement and the private sector. “The centre will bring together the expertise and resources to disrupt scammers making contact with Australians, raise consumer awareness about how to avoid scams and link scam victims to services. “Through increased sharing of scam reports and other initiatives, the centre will help inform finance, telecommunications and digital platform sectors to make more timely and effective steps to stop scammers.” Last month, ASIC criticised the major banks for their scam detection and prevention, and called on all financial institutions to improve their approach to handling scams. It said the banks detected and stopped a low proportion of scam payments made by their customers, in the order of 13 per cent. Reimbursement or compensation was paid in only around 11 per cent of the cases where there was a scam loss. It said scam losses for major bank customers last year exceeded $550 million and affected 31,700 customers. ASIC said scam victims were not always well supported by their banks. ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said: “Australia’s big four banks have invested significantly in their anti-scam efforts over the past few years and have implemented a number of innovative and positive initiatives. “However, the increasing prominence of scams means that there is still more to be done.”