Scam Awareness Week - Stay Vigilant Australia

Scam Awareness Week

Stay Vigilant, Australia

Protecting our communities from evolving cyber threats

Next Week is Scam Awareness Week - Scammers are getting smarter, fast. With AI-powered phishing, deepfakes, and increasingly convincing payment redirection scams, Australians are in the crosshairs. Scam Awareness Week kicks off next week, and it's a timely reminder that our best defence is vigilance, verification, and smarter tools.

I write this as an editor with a research interest in cyber security and the intersection of law and technology — and as someone who's seen the human side of these crimes. Friends have lost money to phishing scams. Even our local government was scammed a few years back. The harm is financial, emotional, and deeply personal — and it can hit anyone.

In 2023, Australians lost $2.74 billion to scams

Despite growing awareness, attackers are using AI to scale and personalise their tactics, impersonate trusted senders, and manipulate urgency. The result: scams that look and feel legitimate.

A note to progressive Christians

For many of us, protecting the vulnerable and pursuing the common good are core commitments. Digital scams are not just "tech problems" — they're justice issues. They target older Australians, migrants, people under financial stress, and small community organisations. Practising digital wisdom is one way to love our neighbour:

• Stewardship: safeguard resources entrusted to you (family budgets, church funds, community grants).
• Solidarity: share warnings, help those affected, and report scams to protect others.
• Truth-telling: verify before you amplify; don't forward unverified messages or links.

Community Action: Consider adding a brief "digital safety minute" to church notices, small groups, or community newsletters during Scam Awareness Week.

What to do right now

• Verify before you trust: If you get an unexpected payment request or change of bank details, pause. Independently confirm via a trusted number or website — don't rely on links or numbers in the message.
• Harden your accounts: Use a password manager, unique passphrases, and multifactor authentication on banking, email, and socials.
• Minimise your data footprint: Share only what's necessary. The less data exposed, the less there is to weaponise.
• Keep systems up to date: Turn on automatic updates for devices and apps.
• Report and share: If you spot a scam, report it to Scamwatch and warn your network, congregation, or community group.

For organisations (including churches and nonprofits)

• Adopt zero-trust principles: Assume requests could be malicious; verify identities and approvals out-of-band.
• Build verification into payments: Add steps that independently confirm recipients before funds move.
• Train continuously: Make scam awareness part of culture, not a once-a-year box tick.
• Prepare to recover: Maintain secure, tested backups (e.g., 3-2-1-1-0) and clear incident response plans.
• Guard beneficiary data: Collect the minimum necessary information and store it securely.

The law–cybersecurity intersection matters

Legal frameworks and accountability are lagging the pace of cyber-enabled fraud. Stronger standards for identity verification, data minimisation, mandatory safeguards on payment rails, and timely redress are essential. We need alignment between regulation, industry practice, and consumer protections so prevention is prioritised over post-incident blame.

Look forward: new tech and inventions

Attackers are evolving — so must we. Real-time payee verification, behavioural analytics, secure-by-design payment systems, privacy-preserving identity checks, and safer device defaults can stop scams before money leaves an account. Post-quantum cryptography research, better authentication, and community education all have a role.

Take Action This Week

Next week, let's make this practical. Slow down. Verify. Share less. Update devices. Turn on MFA. Report scams. And keep pushing — as citizens and as people of faith — for better tech, better laws, and better protections.

We may not eliminate scams entirely, but with vigilance and wisdom, we can make Australia a much harder target.