Grifters and scammers are trying to cash in on the Bondi Beach terrorist attack by launching speculative cryptocurrencies and fake fundraisers, even celebrating when the value of a coin using the likeness of the 10-year-old victim of the mass shooting spiked after launching. As is typically the case around any major news event, opportunistic people… Read more »
Cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai, a countermeasure to Australia’s $2 billion scam industry, has raised $2.5 million in Seed funding. The round was led by OIF Ventures with participation from Investible. The funds are for product development and international expansion, including hiring engineering and go-to-market teams, as well as expanding its partnerships with financial institutions, telcos, and governments… Read more »
If, like this writer, you’ve had time on your hands, felt mischievous and decided to take on scammers with a meandering conversation to slow them down, you’re going to love what a Sydney startup is doing with Australia’s biggest bank. Sydney cyber-intelligence startup Apate.ai has teamed up with the CommBank to create AI-powered “victim bots”… Read more »
Social media companies are being “contemptuous” to the Australian people and have done “nothing” to help protect their users from scams and crimes, according to former government cyber security tsar Alastair MacGibbon. MacGibbon, who after a 15-year career with the Australian Federal Police served as special adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security and… Read more »
Australian mining magnate Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest is a step closer to holding Meta to account for deepfake scam advertisements, after the dismissal of an appeal by the tech giant marked the first time it has failed to hide behind a US law widely seen to provide blanket immunity online. Forrest first discovered his image… Read more »
Five Australians have been arrested as part of a worldwide sting that took down a cybercrime platform acting as a “one-stop-shop” for phishing. Authorities from around the world teamed up to target LabHost, a cybercrime platform that offered users a “phishing kit” for a price, allowing them to steal the personal details and money of… Read more »
Scams ads are now a $3 billion problem in Australia and research from consumer lobby group CHOICE has found that 2 out of 3 people (66%) think digital platforms, such as Google and Meta, aren’t doing enough to protect people from them. Even more alarmingly, we don’t have a lot of faith in those around… Read more »
Anyone who has heard me speak over the year and a bit since I became the Minister will have heard me talk about scams. And in particular, we believe the Consumer Data Right can be used to make a real, lasting difference. Scammers are causing untold misery across the country. Conservative estimates tell us that… Read more »
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) paid out more than half a billion dollars to cyber criminals between July 2021 and February 2023, according to an ABC report. Most of the payments were for small amounts (less than A$5,000) and were not flagged by the ATO’s own monitoring systems. The fraudsters exploited a weakness in the… Read more »
A National Anti-Scams Centre will be up and running by July under a $58 million federal budget commitment. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones revealed details of the new centre on Monday, saying it will sit within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and act as a central place to report scams and share information with… Read more »
Australians lost a record $3.1 billion to financial scammers in 2022. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suggests the real figure is likely much higher, with an estimated 30% of scams going unreported. The findings come from the watchdog’s Targeting Scams report, which combines data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange… Read more »
The generative AI industry will be worth about A$22 trillion by 2030, according to the CSIRO. These systems – of which ChatGPT is currently the best known – can write essays and code, generate music and artwork, and have entire conversations. But what happens when they’re turned to illegal uses? Last week, the streaming community… Read more »
Each year, as the festive season arrives, we must also keep an eye out for potential scammers trying to ruin the fun. This is because scammers become more active during the holidays, targeting us while we have our guard down. So far in 2022, Australians have lost around half a billion dollars to scams, which… Read more »
Greed, desire, wishful thinking and naivety are lucrative markets for scam artists – and their age-old hustles are increasingly being supplemented by digital chicanery. In 2021 Australians lost an estimated $2 billion to fraudsters, more than double that of 2020, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The consumer watchdog’s latest scam report details… Read more »
For most people, the ping of an incoming SMS will induce some level of excitement — or mild intrigue at least. But with SMS scams on the rise, many may now be meeting this same sound with trepidation. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) ScamWatch website, scams delivered via “phone” or “text”… Read more »
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