The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has welcomed a federal government decision that will enable it to consider the actions of “receiving banks” in scam complaints.
The Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, said yesterday that he had approved a change to the conditions of AFCA’s authorisation as ombudsman service for the financial sector that would enable it to investigate and consider the actions of receiving banks in scam complaints.
Currently – and until the change comes into effect in 12 months’ time – AFCA does not have jurisdiction to look at the actions of a “receiving bank”, where the proceeds of a scam are transferred. It can only consider the actions of the bank that has the direct customer relationship with the person or entity who has lodged a complaint.
“This authorisation condition change means that in the future, the actions of receiving banks can be considered as part of the full chain of events in a scam,” AFCA CEO David Locke said.
Meanwhile the National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams Report shows that losses to scams had fallen 26 per cent in 2024, and the volume of scam reports by 18 per cent.
Over the same period, Australians made 494,732 scam reports compared to 601,803 in 2023 (a 17.8% decrease in reports).While investment scams continue to result in the most significant financial harm to Australians with combined losses of $945.0 million in 2024, financial losses across all scam categories, except payment redirection, decreased in 2024.
Investment scams led to the highest overall losses ($192.3 million), although the amount lost decreased by 34.1% compared with 2023.
There was a 26.6% increase in reported losses for unexpected money scams and while fewer people reported a loss, where they did lose money, they lost significantly more with median losses doubling in 2024.
Scams contributing to the increase in losses associated with unexpected money scams are ‘Grant scams’ on Facebook and a small number of very large loss inheritance scams.