Murray Jones:
But the Fighting Scams campaign, it’s just about to be released. Equipping Australians with simple, actionable strategies to guard against scams. Now, the key message: stop, check and protect. Three steps: stop, check and protect. The Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones joins me this morning. Good morning, Stephen. Welcome to 2025.
Stephen Jones:
Hey, good to be with you again. All the best for the year for you and your listeners.
Murray Jones:
Some exciting times coming up for 2025. But of course, we don’t want our life savings plundered and I know for – particularly for older people, using some of these new technologies can be a bit of a bit of a challenge. But when you get a message, sometimes older people get excited and they go and check it out – ‘oh, what’s this all about?’ But unfortunately, they often get scammed when it’s something that might have come from a financial institution. Let’s talk a little bit more about the key strategy behind this particular campaign: stop, check and protect. Let’s go through those individually.
Stephen Jones:
Yeah, just some simple messages so that people are on guard when they’re receiving phone calls from strangers after personal information or transacting business online. Stop – it’s just about slowing down, having a look at the request, does this look right? Is it too good to be true? Is this the right web address? Is that the right email address? Is that really the person who is calling me on this phone number? Check their details. Check is about checking the details of pretty simple stuff. It’s like putting a seatbelt on before you drive the car. Just check the details of the person who has approached you. Are they who they say they are? Check the details of the offer. Does it look too good to be true? And then finally, protect yourself and your information. Don’t be giving your bank details out to strangers online or over the phone. And protect yourself and your community by reporting scams that you see through scamwatch.com.au. So 3 pretty simple things to do. Simple things for everybody to remember when they’re doing business or taking calls.
Murray Jones:
And look, I think reporting these things too often helps to get them out and about, so people become more and more aware of it. Let’s go back to step one, you’re saying stop. Now, look, sometimes this is part of the scam. They give you a degree of urgency, obviously a false urgency that somebody’s hacked into your bank account, you’re about to lose some money, so you need to act really quickly. But I guess stopping and thinking about things and independently checking who may be calling you. If, for instance, they say it’s your financial institution, independently get the number and call them back. Don’t call them back on a number that they’ve given you. Independently check it. And I guess going back and checking through the system, despite that urgency that they may have created, Stephen.
Stephen Jones:
Yeah, absolutely right. They try and create a sense of urgency. It’s a technique very similar to any salesperson who’s listening. They want to close the deal. Scammers are picking up all that psychology and using it against Australians. So, stop, slow it down and make sure that the person really is the person they are pretending to be. So, slow things down. They may try and trick you into thinking that this unbelievable deal will be gone in an hour if you don’t act quickly or somebody’s going to lose something. In almost every circumstance, you will lose nothing by just slowing it down, stopping and not rushing to action.
Murray Jones:
And look, it’s a shame in so many ways because a lot of older people decide to take the plunge and make themselves more, I guess, accessible and do things online. But it is one of those things, particularly through mobile phones, through emails, through text, that you might get, the various messaging services. These are the ones that we’ve just got to be so careful of.
Stephen Jones:
Absolutely. The scammers impersonate a bank, a social media company. They’ll impersonate a sporting organisation. So, we’re coming up to Australian Open time, there’ll be lots of fake tickets floating around the place. A concert. They’re always out there impersonating these – they’re trying to tap into things that they already know that are going to be on people’s minds. During tax time, for example, they’ll be impersonating the tax office. They’ll often send you a text message, they’ll have a blue link in it. And the idea of the blue link is to make it convenient for you to contact the website of your bank or your financial institution. Of course, that’s a very dangerous thing to do. I always say, never press those bloody blue links, because that’s what scammers use to direct you off to a fake website. And you mentioned the QR codes –
Murray Jones:
Yeah.
Stephen Jones:
– something very similar. They’ll – just check the QR code that’s on the table or at the pub or your restaurant or your cafe, wherever you are, just make sure that somebody hasn’t placed a sticker over it to put a fake QR code there to direct you off to a fake website. So, they’re cunning, but we can just put these simple things in place to ensure that we’re protecting ourselves and our information. It’s the same thing as covering the keypad over when you’re typing in your number at an ATM.
Murray Jones:
Sure.
Stephen Jones:
Or putting a seatbelt on before you start the car. Simple rules won’t stop everything, but it’ll ensure that we’re keeping ourselves safe.
Murray Jones:
And certainly those QR codes are ones that I often use and it often makes it simple, particularly in restaurants. But the thing to check is that often, they’re often actually stuck to tables outside. Make sure that there’s not a sticker or something placed over the QR code, which will sometimes be a giveaway that somebody’s trying to scam you. Some really good advice and some important stuff because it continues to grow. And of course, the eye‑watering figures when it comes to the amount of money that a lot of Australians are losing.
Let’s just quickly talk on the unemployment rate, a bit of an increase, a very slight increase throughout December of the unemployment rate just moving forward to, of course, an interest rate, hopefully a cut in February. Has this change in the pattern when it comes to the unemployment rate likely to have any effect on the possibility of a bit of a rate cut coming up in February?
Stephen Jones:
Well, the really great economic news in Australia is we’ve got phenomenal participation rate. That is there’s more people in work today than there’s ever been. So, employment is still growing strongly. Unemployment did age up a bit in December. Not unusual if you think about it. You’ve got a lot of people leaving school and a lot of people leaving university. So, not unusual that it does edge up. But I think looking through the course of the year, employment is staying strong. The labour market’s very strong here in Australia and there’s a lot of businesses out there after workers, including in Cairns. So, I remain confident that the unemployment rate will remain strong. I know that households and businesses are doing it tough. So, we’re all hopeful that when it meets in February this year, that the Reserve Bank will see its way through to reducing those interest rates because we know that people are doing it tough out there and they need some relief as well.
Murray Jones:
Yeah. And particularly getting young Australians into housing. So important as well. Great to talk to you this morning. Some important stuff, particularly when it comes to the scams. Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones. I’ve got to get to my dad joke of the day so it’s been great talking to you, but we might go with a lighter subject. All the best and thanks so much for your time this morning, Stephen. Cheers.
Stephen Jones:
Good to talk to you, mate.