Meta’s response to the Australian Government’s proposed scam reform

by Mia Garlick, Regional Director of Policy for Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand & Pacific Islands at Meta

Update on the 6th, June
From mid-June onwards, new advertisers may be required to have a verified phone number associated with their ad account before publishing ads. This involves an account administrator confirming a code sent by Meta through SMS, voice call, or WhatsApp to validate the phone number, before ads can be published. These efforts are part of our ongoing efforts to help keep consumers safer on our platforms, particularly from scam activity, as we aim to increase transparency and accountability within Meta’s advertising services. Further details about this initiative may be found here.

Originally published on the 27th February 2024
Scams are a society-wide challenge that many industries along with law enforcement are working to tackle. Malicious scammers targeting people across the internet, via phone calls, texts and other means are extremely adversarial and constantly change tactics in an attempt to avoid detection and enforcement.

Meta believes that cross-industry collaboration is key to tackling this challenge, because the majority of scams in Australia occur via text message (33%), phone (29%) or email (22%), compared with 6% via the internet and 6% via social network and online forums. Tackling this solution can’t be done by one company or one sector in isolation.

Given the significant existing and ongoing investment by companies, including Meta, the financial industry and other key stakeholders in combating scams, we believe that it is important that any new obligations set out by the government are targeted and evidence-based to achieve the goal of ensuring industry invests appropriately in combating scams.

In response to the Australian Government’s consultation on Scams-Mandatory Industry Codes, we believe that it is critical for the Government to follow an evidence-based approach to industry-wide frameworks as it will allow platforms, including Meta, to determine how early-stage measures are performing. That way, we can ensure that we’re collectively taking the most effective approaches to countering scams. Evidence and data from these measures can be fed into an industry-led code overseen by a regulator with the necessary industry expertise, such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Measures we’re exploring and will start to test and evaluate the impacts of include, new escalation channels for Australian trusted partners like the financial sector, new advertiser verification including heightened verification for higher risk areas, and the rollout of new education resources including an anti-scam resource hub and new consumer campaigns with local partners.

In the meantime, Meta will continue to support the industry’s and government’s efforts to disrupt and reduce scams in Australia, including through our policies and automated systems that prohibit and disrupt this type of abusive behaviour, as well as on-platform enforcement, tools and features.

Scams are a highly adversarial space when malicious actors constantly evolve their tactics targeted at people across the internet, and Meta is committed to constantly strengthening our defences to stay ahead in helping to protect people.

An executive summary of Meta’s response to the Australian Government’s Scams-Mandatory Industry Codes consultation can be found here.