Australia’s new anti-scam centre is getting to work. 

The National Anti-Scam Centre has held its inaugural Advisory Board meeting, marking the commencement of greater cross-sector collaboration in the fight against scammers. 

The Advisory Board includes senior leaders from government, industry, consumer organisations, victim support services and law enforcement.

The Advisory Board will support and inform the delivery of the National Anti-Scam Centre’s work to disrupt scammers and reduce the impact of scams for consumers and businesses.

“As scammers become increasingly sophisticated in their tactics, a coordinated response across government, law enforcement and the private sector is essential to combat scams more effectively,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.

“The National Anti-Scam Centre’s Advisory Board will enable government to work with key industry sectors and consumer organisations to identify emerging scam and fraud issues, share information and coordinate our efforts to better protect consumers.”

Members of the Advisory Board will play a key role in providing expert advice to the National Anti-Scam Centre by sharing their relevant experiences and intelligence to minimise the threat of scams.

The Advisory Board adopted a number of principles to guide their work together, including that consumers will be placed in the centre of considerations and that the National Anti-Scam Centre will seek to integrate existing initiatives and avoid duplication.

The Advisory Board acknowledged the need for a consistent approach across the public and private sectors for defining and naming scams. Consistency will make it easier for consumers to report scams and facilitate seamless data sharing between organisations to increase the speed of disruption. Members agreed to develop a naming convention for scams to underpin the National Anti-Scam Centre’s data sharing technology and analytics, which will be critical to determining how best to disrupt scams.

A communique for the first Advisory Board meeting is available on the ACCC website.

The Advisory Board will meet monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for 14 August 2023.