The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has directed telco provider Buroserv Australia Pty Ltd (Buroserv) to comply with phone scam rules after it breached information sharing and reporting obligations on multiple occasions.
Telcos are required to share information about identified scam traffic with other telcos and the ACMA under the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMs Industry Code. They are also required to report blocked scams to the ACMA quarterly.
Over a 12-month period from September 2023, Buroserv failed to share information about more than four million suspected scam calls carried on its network. Many of these scams posed a serious risk to Australians as they impersonated well known government agencies and financial institutions including the Department of Immigration and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
These information sharing rules are critical to early identification and disruption of scams across all Australian telco networks. A failure to notify other telcos can compromise their ability to take rapid action to protect their customers.
The ACMA also found that Buroserv failed to report the number of scams it blocked from July 2022 to June 2024. The ACMA uses these reports to identify scam trends and monitor that telcos are meeting their obligations. A direction to comply is the strongest enforcement action the ACMA can take for an initial industry code breach. A direction to comply enlivens financial penalties of up to $250,000 per contravention if the ACMA finds future breaches.
Help if you are scammed
Consumers should contact their telco and financial institution immediately if they think they have been a victim of a phone scam.
Help other Australians by reporting scams to Scamwatch. Reporting scams and talking about them not only helps to understand what happened but also informs authorities about scam activities so that they can make it harder for scams to occur.
Information about how to identify phone scams, and to protect your friends and family, is available here: Phone and SMS scams | ACMA
The ACMA supports the government's Fighting Scams initiative to address scams and online fraud and protect Australians from financial harm. We also contribute to the work of the National Anti-Scam Centre, which coordinates government, law enforcement and the private sector to combat scams.
