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Following the data breach, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is inundated with complaints about Optus-related scams.
The consumer watchdog head Gina Cass-Gottlieb s said the regulator’s scam team had received about 600 complaints a day related to the breach.
Cass-Gottlieb said many scammers are taking advantage of the large-scale data breach and posing as the telecommunications giant or Equifax Protect, the credit reporting agency tasked with supporting victims of the breach, to swindle consumers.
She told a parliamentary committee people were confused about the legitimacy of the communications.
So far, Cass-Gottlieb said 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,” she said.
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She said it was positive to see more people alert to scam risks.
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.
The financial regulators will be grilled about anti-competitive behaviour, corporate greenwashing and the rise of social media “finfluencers”.
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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-colla r crime.
He pointed to the collapse of th e 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 follo wing 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.”
You may also want to read: Sydney man charged for extortion attempts on Optus breach victims (commsroom.co)
With AAP. (Content has been tweaked for length and style.)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
