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As scam numbers rise, Optus offers a new tool to help customers recognise scams as they pop up.
Telco Optus has announced a new anti-scam tool to help its customers keep track of trending scams.
Optus ScamWise lets users report malicious-seeming texts via the My Optus app, which will then be analysed by the company’s internal “scam team”. Any messages found to be “inauthentic” will be blocked from circulating further over the network.
Matt Williams, Optus’ managing director of customer solutions, said the new tool is designed to combat a change in scammer tactics.
“What we’ve been seeing is that scammers are shifting their attacks to mobile and personal communication channels to reach Australians,” Williams said in a statement. “They incorporate relevant themes in their messages and evolve their tactics with world or seasonal events.
“We are working to better protect our customers and make it harder for scammers to prosper. Optus ScamWise not only helps protect the Optus customer community but also lets them help protect their wider circle too.
“We know that there is a lot of work to be done, and we remain committed to playing our part to address this national priority alongside leading businesses, government, and the broader community.”
According to Optus, existing anti-scam measures have stopped 130 million SMS scams and 380 million voice scams since December 2020.
The new offering comes as Optus continues to face fallout from its October outage that saw customers nationwide unable to make calls for 14 hours. Most recently, the company revealed that the outage caused 2,697 Triple Zero calls to not connect during the outage, a number many times greater than the telco’s original reporting.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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