Anti-scam ‘alliance’ could see Apple, Google and others sign a voluntary anti-scam code

Thursday, 10 July 2025

“Some reports suggest scams cost the economy up to $2 billion annually,” says Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson says.

The Government has unveiled a public-private “alliance” to fight scams, and among its aims is to get Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Twitch, X and Yahoo to sign up to a voluntary anti-scam code.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson announced the alliance on Thursday, which he hoped would result in a better co-ordinated national effort to reduce scam losses for households and businesses, which may be costing as much as $2 billion a year.

There was no indication that the Government would follow Australia in passing laws putting obligations on the likes of social media companies to detect, disrupt, and respond to scams on pain of fines of up to A$50 million (NZ$54.5 million).

“It is unacceptable that so many Kiwis are swindled by scammers every day,” Simpson said.

Anti-scam efforts had developed in an ad hoc way and suffered from a lack of co-ordination, he said. The alliance would address this by establishing a formal structure for government agencies, banks, telecommunications companies, digital platforms, sectors and consumer groups to share data about scams and shut them down quickly.

A strategy document released by Simpson showed digital platforms had started discussions around the development of a voluntary New Zealand Online Scams Code to provide non-binding obligations on platforms around anti-scam protections.

It makes reference to Australia where Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Twitch, X and Yahoo have signed up to an Australian Online Scams Code.

Many scams are advertised on social media platforms, and crooks use them to hunt for victims. Signatories to the Australian code agree to have systems in place to make it easy for the public to report scams, and to act quickly to take down scam advertising.

However, Australia has not been content with allowing the likes of social media platforms and banks to self-regulate.

Earlier this year Australia passed the Scams Prevention Act, which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said led the world by setting out enforceable obligations for businesses in key sectors where scammers operate to take reasonable steps to detect, disrupt, and respond to scams.

ACCC welcomed the new laws in February, saying it would closely monitor compliance.

Social media and increasingly digital living has resulted in New Zealanders experiencing a wave of scam attacks from crooks overseas.

Simpson said: “Some reports suggest scams cost the economy up to $2 billion annually, and it is crucial we get on top of the problem.”

Information-sharing was an important part of the alliance, Simpson said.

“We frequently hear that real-time information on scams is sourced from different areas across government and the private sector, making for a fragmented, and often, slow response,” he said.

“The alliance addresses this by establishing a formal structure for government agencies, banks, telecommunications companies, digital platforms sectors, and consumer groups to share data about scams and shut them down in real-time.

“By better co-ordinating our efforts across industry and government, we should be able to seal up the cracks that scammers are slipping through,” he said.

Work under way, the strategy document shows, includes the Department of Internal Affairs developing an all-of-Government app that would enable government agencies to send authentic and verified messages to New Zealanders, reducing the risk of them falling for scam communications from crooks pretending to be from government agencies like the Inland Revenue Te Tari Taake.

Banks are implementing changes to their voluntary Code of Banking Practice, and the telecommunications sector is reviewing its Scam Prevention Code.