The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is pitching itself as the organisation best-placed to tackle a rise in scams promoted through social media.
The TIO first suggested the possible role in a February submission [pdf] to Treasury in response to the ACCC’s digital platform services inquiry.
The growth in scams has been highlighted recently by a rise in “shipping container scams”, reported by the ABC, where sellers impersonate legitimate container companies to fleece potential buyers.
The ACCC has called on platforms like Facebook to take more responsibility for shutting down such scams, with Scamwatch telling the ABC the container scam netted $1.8 million in 2022.
The TIO’s stance is that it has suitable complaints handling experience and existing regulatory relationships needed for it to enforce takedowns of such scam pages on social media sites.
It argues its “referral model” – the TIO contacts telcos on behalf of dissatisfied customers – would work well in dealing with digital platforms, and that it already has experience dealing with large volumes of complaints, with nearly 80,000 handled in the telecoms industry in 2021-2022.
“My office is already hearing about problems with digital platform services from people and small businesses who assume we are the right body to respond to these complaints,” ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said.
“The TIO is ready to expand its remit to take complaints about digital platforms, either through a pilot or as a permanent part of our jurisdiction.”
Already fielding complaints
In its submission, the TIO said customers lacking any other recourse are already contacting it about issues as diverse as faulty products, disputed reviews, privacy invasion, locked accounts, and fees.
“These issues are very similar to the issues we currently handle about telcos,” the TIO said.
It suggested a pilot, with mandatory membership of platform operators would be an efficient data-gathering exercise.
Funding, the TIO said, could be based on its existing fee structure, which includes a fixed membership fee plus charges levied on individual carriers for resolved cases.
