The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has directed telco provider Buroserv Australia Pty Ltd (Buroserv) to comply with phone scam rules after it breached information sharing and reporting obligations on multiple occasions.
Telcos are required to share information about identified scam traffic with other telcos and the ACMA under the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMs Industry Code. They are also required to report blocked scams to the ACMA quarterly.
Over a 12-month period from September 2023, Buroserv failed to share information about more than four million suspected scam calls carried on its network. Many of these scams posed a serious risk to Australians as they impersonated well known government agencies and financial institutions including the Department of Immigration and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
These information sharing rules are critical to early identification and disruption of scams across all Australian telco networks. A failure to notify other telcos can compromise their ability to take rapid action to protect their customers.
The ACMA also found that Buroserv failed to report the number of scams it blocked from July 2022 to June 2024. The ACMA uses these reports to identify scam trends and monitor that telcos are meeting their obligations. A direction to comply is the strongest enforcement action the ACMA can take for an initial industry code breach. A direction to comply enlivens financial penalties of up to $250,000 per contravention if the ACMA finds future breaches.
