Social media platforms will be forced to crack down on scams that use fake celebrity endorsements or fictitious news segments or face millions in fines.
Banks and telecoms companies could also face extraordinary fines of up to $50 million if they allow fraudsters to swindle unsuspecting Australians, under tough new laws proposed by the Albanese government.
Deputy Treasurer Stephen Jones is due to publish draft legislation outlining the reforms on Friday, which he says will give Australians the “best protections anywhere in the world”. news.com.au reported.
The move will please TV personality and former Sunrise presenter David Koch, who regularly… explosions Goal and Facebook for failing to remove fraudulent ads using his image.
Along with billionaire Andrew Forrest and businessman Dick Smith, Koch is part of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission lawsuit against Facebook owner Meta filed in 2022, accusing it of misleading conduct by allowing fraudulent ads.
Koch expressed frustration last year that legal action had stalled while Australians continued to be ripped off.
“I’m devastated by what (the scams) do to ordinary people – it’s people’s life savings,” he said.
‘If (Meta has) algorithms that can detect inappropriate posts from customers on a platform, why don’t they have the same algorithms that can also detect inappropriate advertising and content on their platforms?’
David Koch (pictured right with his wife Libby) has long campaigned for more to be done to stop scams that use his image as bait.
Under the proposed new powers, the government will be able to set sector-specific codes enforcing an obligation to stop scams.
Internal dispute resolution mechanisms should be accessible and transparent so that customers can use them when they fear they have been scammed.
There will be a prescribed endpoint detection and response scheme to regulate communications services in Australia.
“The Albanese Government is working to make Australia the toughest target in the world for fraudsters,” the Deputy Treasurer said.
‘We want to ensure that the best protections in the world are available to people here in Australia.
‘Australians are losing too much money to scams and while we have been bucking the international trend of scams doubling every year, losses are still too high.’
Koch compared scammers to “the new drug cartels” and urged platforms to compensate victims or stop such ads.
Anthony Albanese’s government has drafted new laws that could see businesses fined millions of dollars for failing to stop scams.
An example of the kind of fraudulent posting that Koch has long denounced is one that Facebook, in particular, allows too freely.
“They are here simply to rip people off financially, and it is boiler rooms in the Philippines or Eastern Europe that run them all,” Koch said.
‘Surely, platforms have a responsibility to compensate people who have been scammed or to stop these ads on the platform.’
Koch had previously admitted he was “devastated” to learn his image had been illegally used to steal money from unsuspecting victims, including an Australian woman who lost $250,000 in a scheme using her name.
“People who trust me and trust what I say and look at me and say ‘wow, I’m feeling comforted by what this guy is saying’, then they’re being scammed by some scammer from overseas,” he previously told Seven Spotlight.