Details below on the topics we spoke about on the ABC Kimberley-Pilbara Mornings show with Eddie Williams!
We first spoke about National Scams Awareness Week in Australia, and after that we looked at proposed changes to Australia’s Consumer Protection Laws – so please, read on!
You can hear our chat here – the rest of the article is below.
1) Let’s start with Australia’s National Scams Awareness Week, and with over 81,000 reports already made this year, a number that would obviously be much lower than the true number of people affected out there, and with $92 million stolen from Australians thus far, scams are rife, and the scammers hope to scam as many people as possible.
3 in every 4 scam reports received by the Australian Government’s Scamwatch.gov.au service involve impersonation — which sees criminals pretending to be people we should trust.
Most impersonation scams came by text message, with people posting family, government organisations or road tolls companies, with scammers posing as banks causing the highest losses.
These scammers pretend to be trusted brands, recruiters and government organisations – even friends or family – to steal personal information and money, and they work at putting you in a highly emotional state: anxious, scared or excited, and obviously, they can happen to anyone, with scammers pretending to be Vodafone calling me earlier this year to offer a promise of 50% off my phone bill for six months, supposedly because I was a loyal customer.
Here’s the official video, more details below, so please read on!
Scamwatch has more information on how to spot a scam here, but its advice is simple.
Next time you receive a call, text or email that asks for sensitive information or doesn’t seem right, STOP and THINK – who’s really there?
Scamwatch advises you to ignore these messages, to delete and block, and keep scrolling. You’re advised to never click the link, and that if hanging up on someone feels hard, it’s OK to tell them you’ll call back on their main number – even if you don’t. Do whatever you need to end the conversation.
You should also independently check who you’re dealing with, and make sure you never use contact details you’ve been given by a potential scammer, whether it is by text, email or over the phone. If you want to check who’s really there, use official websites, apps, phone numbers and email addresses you’ve looked up yourself.
2) Now let’s look at the proposed changes to Australia’s Consumer Protection Laws
With the Australian government reviewing its unfair trading laws, Australian consumer advocacy groups are calling for strong new fairness laws to close gaps in Australian Consumer Law, as 7 in 10 people mistakenly believe businesses are already required to treat consumers fairly. There’s also a petition Australians can sign to make unfair trading practices illegal.
In Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has something called the Australian Consumer Law, which offers consumer protections in the areas of:
- unfair contract terms, covering standard form consumer contracts
- consumer rights when buying goods and services
- product safety
- unsolicited consumer agreements covering door-to-door sales and telephone sales
- lay-by agreements
One area of this provision is the warranty the product you’ve purchased comes with. While companies might say you have a one or two year warranty, if your purchase is reasonably expected to work for longer than that and unexpectedly dies earlier than that, you can still be able to get it repaired under warranty, even if the official warranty period is over.
Now comes new nationally representative research from CHOICE has found 7 in 10 (72%) people believe Australian businesses are required to act fairly towards consumers, even though there is no law that requires this. Consumer laws have not kept up with community expectations, allowing many harmful and unfair practices, such as subscription traps and unfair pricing, to continue.
CHOICE’s research also found:
- 69% of people mistakenly believe Australian businesses face penalties if they’ve been found to have acted unfairly
- 89% said businesses charging you higher prices for a product or service based on the personal information they collected about you online is unfair
- 90% said businesses that make it difficult for you to cancel your online subscription to a product or service you no longer want is unfair
- 84% said businesses selling extended warranties that don’t cover you for anything in addition to what is available under the law is unfair
The research comes as the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC), CHOICE and other consumer advocates make a submission to the government’s unfair trading consultation process and call for a new ban on unfair business practices.
CPRC CEO, Erin Turner said: “Australians are missing out on protections that consumers in other countries have benefited from for decades – we need laws to effectively call-out and restrict unfair practices. This law will mean businesses have to treat you with respect and care.”
“This law will protect Australians and give certainty to businesses, fostering a healthier marketplace that doesn’t reward or give competitive advantage to those businesses who exploit or manipulate consumers.”
“It’s time for the law to catch up to community expectations. 7 in 10 people believe businesses are already required to act fairly towards consumers. Making unfair business practices illegal is a necessary step to update Australia’s consumer law, protect consumers from harm and promote healthy competition. New fairness laws must also have strong penalties for businesses who do the wrong thing, to ensure they’re held to account for their bad behaviour.”
The joint consumer submission to the government also recommends that:
CHOICE Senior Policy and Campaigns Adviser, Alex Soderlund, said: “There are a number of gaps in the consumer law when it comes to protecting people from unfair business practices. These gaps leave consumers in Australia vulnerable to all kinds of unfair treatment, ranging from businesses making it nearly impossible to cancel a subscription online, to charging you higher prices based on personal information they collect about you online.”
- An unfair trading practices prohibition should incorporate a general ban with a ‘blacklist’ of specified unfair trade practices, which is specified and managed by the regulator, and subject to public consultation.
- An unfair trade practices prohibition should be economy-wide, and there should not be a carve-out for financial services.
The full range of penalties and remedies, including civil penalties and actions for damages and compensation, should be available for breach of an unfair trade practices prohibition.
Read the full story here.
See the submission and survey responses here.
Sign the petition to make unfair business practices illegal here.
