Combating phone scams

The ACMA plays a key role in combating scams as the regulator for telecommunications. We:

• Run the Scam Telecommunications Action Taskforce, with participation from across the telco sector and government agencies.
• Make and enforce rules that require telcos to use multifactor ID authentication to stop porting fraud and SIM swap fraud.
• Register and enforce rules that require telcos to identify, trace and block scam calls and SMS.
• Share intelligence to disrupt scams with industry and other regulators.
• Educate people via awareness-raising materials on spotting and stopping phone scams in multiple languages and for First Nations Australians.
• Fight impersonation scams by starting a voluntary SMS sender ID register pilot in December 2023 to protect SMS message headers until we implement an enforceable register in December 2025.

We support the National Anti-Scam Centre, which works with government, law enforcement and the private sector to disrupt and prevent scams.

In the 2024 budget, the government announced that the ACMA will be responsible for administering and enforcing telco rules under the new Scams Code Framework. The framework will be a focus of our work in 2024–25 as we tackle scammers targeting Australians via the financial sector, digital platforms and telco services.  

Read more about recent action we’ve taken to protect the public by promoting and enforcing the law, including under our current compliance priorities.

We have formal anti-scam information-sharing arrangements with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. 

Recognising the global nature and impact of scams, we are an Executive member of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network (UCENet), a global network of agencies engaged in combating unsolicited communications. 

We also have individual MOUs with the following international agencies to formalise intelligence-sharing and best practice:

• Federal Communications Commission, US
• Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission 
• Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand 
• Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority
• Information Commissioner’s Office, UK.

The SMS sender ID register is part of the government’s Fighting Scams initiative to address scams and online fraud and protect Australians from financial harm.

Find out more about the SMS sender ID register.