The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published a marketing and junk mail update outlining its actions to thwart scammers in the January – March 2024 quarter. It reports that it is currently conducting two anti-fraud investigations, three ongoing junk mail investigations, and has implemented 20 legally binding commitments.
“We are persistently confronting fraudsters to disrupt their operations and safeguard Australians,” states the update. ACMA highlights that its primary compliance focuses are combating SMS fraud and enforcing e-marketing opt-out regulations.
“In this quarter, ACMA received in excess of 6,200 complaints from consumers regarding alleged infringements of telemarketing and spam regulations,” states the update. “The most common complaints (excluding frauds) originated from the retail, construction and maintenance, and solar sectors.”
Some of ACMA’s significant achievements in the recent quarter are:
- Imposing a PENALTY of AUD302,000 on Outdoor Supacentre (trading as 4WD Supacentre) for sending commercial communications without consent;
- Securing over AUD12.7 million in fines over the past 18 months against companies that sent illegal junk mail;
- Enlarging the SMS Sender ID Registry trial by introducing new alpha tags, which aids in preventing business message headers in SMS from being counterfeited by scammers;
- Issuing 1,173 compliance alerts to companies so they can rectify potential junk mail and telemarketing compliance concerns (bringing the total to 3,601 in the current fiscal year); and
- Releasing consumer advisories about the resurgence of the ‘Hi mum scam’, government ‘cost of living’ impersonation scams, and Do Not Call Register scams.
ACMA notes a rise in companies that may be failing to adhere to Australia’s junk mail laws because they lack sufficient opt-out procedures for automated SMS and email ‘welcome journeys’.
A ‘welcome journey’ refers to a sequence of automated messages sent to new clients to welcome them to the company over a few days or weeks. These messages typically contain advertisements and offer discounts.
Some clients have attempted to unsubscribe after receiving the initial welcome journey messages but have continued to receive the entire series of messages. This occurs because the unsubscribe mechanism is inactive until the full automated welcome journey is concluded. ACMA states that such practices could potentially put these companies in breach of their opt-out obligations under the Spam Act 2003.
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