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Telstra has created a new phone line dedicated to helping battle SMS and MMS scams plaguing its customers.
When Telstra customers receive a scam message, they can now easily forward it to the number 7226 — which spells out scam on a traditional alphanumeric keypad. The service is free of charge and is a part of the company’s scam-blocking Cleaner Pipes initiative, launched in April 2022.
Since then, Telstra has blocked around 23 million scam messages each month — but as Telstra points out, there is still more work to be done to fight scams.
The new service works on both Android and Apple devices. On iPhone, simply tap and hold the message and click “More”, select “Forward”, and type in the number. On Android, tap the three dots, click “Forward”, and then type the number.
“7226 is another keystone in the fight to stay ahead of scams and help Telstra’s internal cyber security team to more quickly identify and block emerging scam techniques or threats before they can affect more Australians,” Telstra said in an announcement.
“While Telstra can and does block millions of scam messages each month, we can’t catch everything. Our technology is evolving, so it’s important that everyone remains vigilant and alert to the rise in scam activity, and we all have a part to play in helping to secure our personal and private data to help protect it from criminals who want to profit from it.”
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), scams cost Australians a total of exceeding $3.1 billion in 2022, a 55 per cent increase over the previous year. Massive data breaches from Optus and Medibank have led to a surge in scam operations.
“Australians lost more money to scams than ever before in 2022, but the true cost of scams is much more than a dollar figure as they also cause emotional distress to victims, their families and businesses,” said Catriona Lowe, deputy chair of the ACCC, in April 2023.
“In the weeks after the data breaches, there were hundreds of reports to Scamwatch, including reports of scammers impersonating government departments and businesses to carry out identity theft and remote access scams.”
And while that $3.1 billion figure is high, the true cost is likely far higher, thanks to under-reporting from victims — the ACCC believes that 30 per cent of scams remain unreported.
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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