James and Sarah lost their life savings after a scammer used this devastating trick to gain their trust.
Despite being fairly tech-savvy young people, the couple were surprised at the sophistication of the scam and how they had been tricked into believing they were speaking with a representative of their bank.
"We'd just been on a trip to Sydney so it kind of made sense ... and I even checked my Uber account and my old card was in there," he said.'Hi Mum' scam arrest: What you need to know about text message scams But he said the bank invests heavily in fraud and scam prevention and has robust processes in place to alert and protect customers.
"Until technology catches up, my belief is there should be a complete blanket [ban] - there will be no links," he said. Professor Gregory believes more regulation is also needed to set out exactly what security features should be provided by companies that sell devices such as mobile phones. Professor Gregory said the people affected were not just those falling prey to get-rich-quick schemes.
"And if they don't have it, then the ACCC and the ACMA need to come down hard on them because that's the only secure approach we have."AAPThe Australian Communications and Media Authority acknowledged more could be done to protect people and says combating SMS and identity theft phone scams is a compliance priority for it in 2022/23.
Text message scams were the most common complaint in 2022, according to the ACCC's ScamWatch with 79,835 reports lodged, costing $29 million. Mr Stanton said the code is enforceable by the ACMA and telcos that were not compliant could suffer financial sanctions.