The campaign reflects the greater global attention being paid to the role the telecoms, tech and financial industries can all play in detecting and preventing scams
Calling on the Government to Stamp Out Scams
On 11 June 2024, Consumer NZ, a non-profit consumer body in New Zealand, launched its ‘Stamp Out Scams’ campaign. The organisation is calling on the Government to introduce a national anti-scam framework that would assign obligations and liability to banks, telecoms operators and tech firms related to preventing scams (although the petition has not yet outlined what those obligations or liabilities would be). To explain the scale of the problem and the urgency of its campaign, Consumer NZ notes that about NZD200m (£97m) was stolen from the 185,000 households that fell victim to scams in 2023. In total, the organisation claims that 1m households were targeted by fraudsters in the past year alone.
The petition calls for a coordinated anti-scam centre and applauds SMS-blocking policies implemented elsewhere
Consumer NZ is also calling for banks to refund scam victims except in cases of gross negligence and for the Government to create a centralised anti-scam centre similar to those seen in Singapore and Australia. The petition also offers a “scams report card” comparison between New Zealand and other countries, including the UK. In addition to a number of payment service related safety measures, including confirmations of payees and smarter payment infrastructure, Consumer NZ applauds the Singaporean Government for its SMS-blocking programme to filter the content of text messages for scams. While the organisation notes that Spark is currently rolling out an anti-scam filter, Singapore earned its “A” mark in the scorecard as a result of a nationalised programme for scam detection.
Consumer NZ is one of many consumer groups advocating for greater big tech to do more to prevent scams
Consumer NZ’s latest campaign follows its move in December 2023 to join international consumer advocacy organisations in calling on governments to require greater action from tech companies to prevent scams. In a joint statement issued through the Consumers International Congress, advocates urged governments to require platforms to improve protections against scams, including better detection and prevention, and improved responses to, and support, for users that fall victim to scams. Proposals include enhanced verification and screening for advertising accounts, advanced monitoring systems for content moderation and improved reporting channels. The open letter was joined by the Consumers Federation of Australia, representing one of the model jurisdictions cited by the new Stamp Out Scams campaign, as well as European consumer body BEUC, UK-based Which? and the Consumers Council of Canada.
The growing scale of consumer fraud has inspired a diverse range of regulatory responses
Citing figures from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, the coalition of consumer groups behind the Consumers International Congress estimates that the total financial loss due to scams has reached $1.026tn (£788bn) as of 2023. With fraud a big and growing problem, a range of regulatory responses related to tech and telecoms have emerged. In many jurisdictions, including the UK, national campaigns have sought to raise awareness of scams by educating consumers. Regulators have diverged though when considering the feasibility of implementing the call-blocking protocols including STIR/SHAKEN, with ComReg in Ireland most recently deciding against the model in the near term. The emergence of AI-driven scams, including through voice cloning and AI-generated robocalls, has also captured the attention of regulators seeking to keep pace with the ever-developing range of methods employed in fraud. As this arms race continues to ramp up, more calls for government action to protect consumers, like the one issued by Consumer NZ, should be expected.
