Indigenous

Bank impersonation scams robbing Australians of their life savings

Consumers are being warned to be wary of phone calls and texts that appear to be from their bank, following alarming reports of Australians losing their life savings to a highly sophisticated impersonation scam.

Reports to the ACCC’s Scamwatch indicate scammers are using new technology to trick their victims, by making the call appear to come from the bank’s legitimate phone number or by sending a text that appears in the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages.

Mosaic Brands pays penalties for alleged misleading representations about government approval of products

Mosaic Brands has paid $266,400 in penalties, after the ACCC issued two Infringement notices relating to alleged false or misleading representations made by Mosaic Brands in promoting a face mask on its Autograph Fashion brand website and a hot water bottle on its Katies brand website.

ACCC launches Your First Steps to help parents keep their baby safe

Parents and carers can get the latest, most reliable information on best practices to keep their baby safe and unsafe products, as part of a new ACCC initiative.

Your First Steps (www.babyproductsafety.gov.au), launched today by the ACCC, is a dedicated website, where parents and carers can go for safety advice on how they can protect their baby when playing, moving, sleeping, soothing, bathing and changing.

ACCC product safety priorities announced at National Consumer Congress

The ACCC will this year focus on product safety issues affecting young children and strategies for reducing instances of fires and injuries from lithium-ion batteries, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said today.

Speaking at her first National Consumer Congress as Chair of the ACCC, Ms Cass-Gottlieb shared her vision for consumer protection in Australia and announced the ACCC’s seven product safety priorities.

The priorities include high-risk product safety issues affecting young children.

Scams target all sections of Australian society including CALD and Indigenous communities

Data from the ACCC’s annual Targeting Scams report, released this week, indicates scammers don’t discriminate and are targeting a range of different communities in Australia.

In 2019, people who reported speaking English as a second language lost $13.7 million, an increase of 90 per cent on the previous year, despite the number of reports remaining steady.

Over 4,000 dangerous Takata airbags replaced a day but many still at risk

Despite 80 percent of recalled Takata airbags in Australian vehicles having been replaced since July 2017, there are growing concerns that some communities are not getting the message.

Since the ACCC’s recommendation for a compulsory recall began in March 2018, an average of almost 77,000 vehicles have had airbags replaced each month – or more than 4, 175 airbag replacements each and every business day.