by The Australian government has announced it will put aside $86.5 million to establish a National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC).
The NASC will be run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and it is hoped to be up and running by July 2023. It will allow greater information sharing between government departments and law enforcement and work to actively target and disrupt scamming operations as they are happening.
The announcement, according to Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones, is about “taking the fight to the scammers”.
“It’s about ensuring that when reports are made, wherever they’re made, whether it’s to the National Anti-Scam Centre, whether it’s to ASIC or state or federal police organisations, or to a bank or telecommunications company, we are sharing the information so that the people who need to know that there are scammers out there in the field are able to act on it quickly,” Minister Jones said during a press event in Canberra today (15 May).
“As soon as money leaves a person’s bank account, it’s almost too late. So this is all about ensuring that we can knock the scams on the head before they get out there in the field.”