ATA Statement on Scams Prevention Framework

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) has welcomed progress on the development of the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF), but warned that any compensation model must have rigorous processes in place to ensure the scheme is not exploited by fraudsters.

“Telcos have successfully blocked close to 3 billion scam calls and more than 1 billion scam texts under our industry Code, which has been enforced by the ACMA since 2020,” said ATA CEO Luke Coleman. “The telecoms sector is committed to protecting Australians from scams, and we are going above and beyond our regulatory requirements to stop scammers in their tracks.”

The Government today commenced consultation on draft industry codes, rules and designations under the SPF legislation.

“We will review the new codes and rules, and welcome the proposal to extend the timeframe for some requirements which will provide greater assurance that the SPF works as effectively as possible.”

The ATA warned that any customer compensation model under the SPF must be based on compliance with the codes and rules.

“There is a significant risk that automatic compensation creates a honeypot for fraudsters. Other countries with automatic compensation models have seen fraudsters exploit the system, where they are deliberately scammed by someone they know and then seek compensation. Any compensation model must have rigorous checks and balances to validate claims and assess liability,” he said.

“Compensation for scams losses should only occur if a regulated company has failed to comply with its regulatory obligations. There must be an assessment of liability – if a regulated company has upheld their obligations under the SPF, they should not be expected to pay compensation,” Mr Coleman said.

“Major sources of scams are still unregulated – cryptocurrencies, gambling services, and dating websites for romance scams are not yet included. Scammers are more likely to target these unregulated sectors for their next victims, while regulated sectors are expected to provide automatic compensation without an assessment of liability.” he said.

The highest overall scam losses in 2025 were made by cryptocurrency or Digital Currency Exchange (DCE), which accounted for 36.2% of overall losses, according to the latest Targeting Scams report by the ACCC National Anti-Scam Centre.

Actions taken to combat scammers are already showing results. Total scam losses have decreased by almost 30% since the peak in 2022, dropping from $3.1b to $2.2b in 2025.

Additionally, the SMS Sender ID Register goes live on July 1 2026, requiring telcos to over-stamp any unregistered SMS IDs (often used by scammers posing as banks or toll road operators) with an “Unverified” label, warning consumers that a message may not be legitimate.

According to the Targeting Scams report, the contact method which saw the largest annual decrease in financial losses was phone calls, with losses decreasing by 32%. This contact method also had the largest decrease in scam reports with a financial loss, down by 7.7% last year. Similarly, SMS scams also saw a significant 62.4% reduction in the number of text message scams reported.