AFCA hails passage of world-first Scams Prevention | Australian Markets

The Federal Authorities’s profitable passage of the Scams Prevention Framework Invoice 2025 has been hailed by Australia’s chief financial complaints authority as a “significant step forward” in combating the nation’s multi-billion-dollar rip-off scourge.

The Australian Monetary Complaints Authority (AFCA), set to be a key participant within the anti-scams scheme, welcomed the laws, which it stated would carry collectively related sectors essential to “effectively disrupt and prevent scams”.

The framework for the new codes will require banks, telecommunications corporations and digital platforms to take energetic steps to assist the prevention, detection, reporting, disruption and response to scams.

AFCA’s chief ombudsman and CEO David Locke stated the new laws, which handle longstanding “legislative and regulatory” inadequacies, would, he declared, compel “robust action to drive out this evil traffic”.

“It will enable the apportionment of liability across different businesses and for a single joined-up redress scheme.”

AFCA is set to play a key function in supporting the framework, with the Authorities flagging the ombudsman because the designated “single external dispute resolution scheme for scams” – accepting and processing scams complaints from digital platforms (together with social media platforms) and telcos alongside its present remit of banks and different financial companies.

For scams victims, the Authorities says, this single route gives “clear pathways to compensation if the business fails to meet robust standards”.

Locke stated the ombudsman will actively collaborate with Authorities, the regulators, industry and client teams to assist the laws’s goals.

This, he added, will be sure that all stakeholders will have the ability to ship “a robust, fair, independent and efficient dispute resolution process”, with AFCA additionally supporting companies in developing and enhancing their inner dispute decision practices.

Commenting on the passage of the invoice, Australian Competitors and Client Fee (ACCC) deputy chair Catriona Lowe stated the now-legislated framework delivers a “vital step within the struggle towards scams – creating overarching ideas that each one members of designated sectors should adjust to.

“We know scammers will exploit weak links in the system – so these principles are key to a consistent approach,” Lowe stated.

ACCC may even play a key function in monitoring regulated entities’ compliance with the framework’s key ideas.

Companies that don’t meet their obligations below the framework, the ACCC notes, might face fines up to $50 million.

The ACCC’s most up-to-date Focusing on Scams annual report, launched in 2024, revealed Australians misplaced more than $2.7 billion to scams within the earlier calendar 12 months.