The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeing a sharp uptick in Optus-related scams complaints in the wake of the cyber security breach.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the regulator’s scam team has been receiving about 600 complaints a day related to the breach.
It was found that many scammers were taking advantage of the large-scale data breach by posing as the telecommunications giant or Equifax Protect to swindle consumers.
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She told a parliamentary committee that people were confused about the legitimacy of the communications.
So far, there had only been a few instances of fraudsters successfully scamming victims out of money by pretending to be from Optus.
“What we can see is it’s only a small number of people who have become a victim to a scam, but many are alert to it and are most of all confused and anxious,” the ACCC Chair said.
She said it was positive to see more people alert to the risks caused by Optus scams.
The head of the regulator also told the economics committee she was yet to spot any evidence of abnormally high petrol prices in the wake of the reinstated fuel excise tax.
The ACCC was tasked with watching retailers carefully for signs of unnecessarily large price hikes when the halved tax was returned to its full 44.2 cents-a-litre level last month.
The heads of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will also front the economics committee on Tuesday.
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The financial regulators will be grilled about anti-competitive behaviour, corporate greenwashing and the rise of social media “finfluencers”.
The economics committee hearing follows a probe of the Reserve Bank of Australia three weeks ago.
In the lead-up to the hearings, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts questioned ASIC’s ability to investigate and prosecute white-collar crime.
He pointed to the collapse of the property investment scheme Sterling First, which cost many Australians their life savings.
“The effectiveness of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has already been questioned following the failure to prevent the Sterling First managed investment fund scandal in Western Australia,” Senator Roberts said.
“ASIC provided incorrect guidance on the security of Sterling First to potential investors.”
With AAP