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Sean Camara
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New government program blocked 2500 scam texts
New government program blocked 2500 scam texts
New government program aims to assist Australians to avoid phone scams. Credit: Getty Images.
Australia has recently seen a rise in phone scam incidents with an 87 per cent increase in reports in the last 10 months from 1 January 1 2021 to 3 October 2021, resulting in a financial loss of a total of $66.8 million.
New government program aims to assist Australians to avoid phone scams. Credit: Getty Images.
In fact, even the family of an AFP official has been victimised by these scams — an alarming incident that means that anyone can fall victim to these irksome phone scams.
In line with these reports, the Australian Cyber Security Centre Services Australia collaborated with Telstra and other telecommunications companies to create a program to tackle phone scams.
The program, which has been running for 12 months, has managed to block more than 2500 text messages from scammers claiming to be from Centrelink, myGov, and the Australian Taxation Office.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said that the initiative is timely given myGov's traffic has increased "significantly" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further, he said that he has reached out to NBN Co, Australia Post, and banks across the country to encourage them to use the same process to block scammers.
Reports revealed that a further 214 million scam calls have been blocked since December 2020 thanks to the government's Reducing Scam Calls Code measures.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said that the initiative is timely, urges NBN Co, Australia Post, and banks across the country to use the program to block scammers. Credit: Armenian National Committee of Australia.
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