Action on scams, spam and telemarketing: April to June 2025

Our key actions
	Penalised Tabcorp $4,003,270 and PointsBet $500,800 for breaching spam rules.
	Penalised Circles Australia $413,160 for breaching mobile number fraud rules.
	Received reports that telcos have blocked more than 2.6 billion scam calls since December 2020 and 936.7 million scam SMS since July 2022.
	Gave 795 compliance alerts to businesses about alleged non-compliance with spam and telemarketing rules.
	Partnered with Irish telco regulator ComReg to combat scams.

* You can obtain the accessibility information for the graphs in this report from the file at the bottom of this page. 

We had 2 compliance priorities for the 2024–25 financial year for unsolicited communications and scams:

1. Targeting misleading spam messages – Our priority was to enforce spam rules to stop commercial messages being misleadingly sent as ‘service’ or non-commercial messages.
2. Disrupting SMS impersonation scams – We worked to disrupt the distribution and impact of these scams by:

• enforcing rules that telcos need to follow to identify and prevent SMS scams
• sharing intelligence with fellow regulators in Australia and internationally. 

In June 2025, we released a summary of outcomes of our 2024–25 compliance priorities. 

We also announced our new compliance priorities for 2025–26. They will include: 

1. Mobile number fraud – We will monitor whether telcos are complying with fraud prevention rules and take strong enforcement action when we find non-compliance.
2. Combating spam and telco scams – This enduring priority will include a focus on persistent unwanted spam or telemarketing. We will escalate our approach to businesses that do not respond to our compliance alerts and early warnings.

Spam and telemarketing enforcement

Key actions and outcomes include:

• We gave Tabcorp a penalty of $4,003,270 and accepted a comprehensive 3-year court enforceable undertaking. We found between February and May 2024 they had sent 5,757 SMS and WhatsApp messages to VIP customers that did not comply with Australia’s spam laws.
• We announced a penalty of $500,800 and accepted a 3-year court enforceable undertaking by PointsBet Australia. An investigation found it sent 802 email and SMS messages between 30 September and 30 November 2023 that did not comply with spam rules. 

Disrupting SMS impersonation scams

Key actions and outcomes:

• Telcos reported blocking more than 936.7 million scam SMS since July 2022, to the end of this quarter. The ACMA and telcos use blocking statistics to identify trends and inform disruption activities.
• We consulted on new regulatory arrangements to support a mandatory SMS sender ID register. This will help prevent business SMS headers from being impersonated by scammers. It will also restore consumer confidence that the brand identified in an SMS is legitimate.
• We provided the voluntary pilot sender ID register. This is disrupting SMS impersonation scams involving some of the key brands used in scam communications.
• We entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with ComReg, Ireland’s communication regulator. The partnership will facilitate greater information sharing and mutual assistance to combat cross-border scam communications.
• We ran a consumer awareness campaign about government impersonation scams, with a focus on scams that impersonate trusted government brands like Services Australia, myGov and the ATO.
• We warned consumers about stockbroker impersonation scams.

Key actions and outcomes:

• Telcos reported blocking more than 2.6 billion scam calls since December 2020, to the end of this quarter. The ACMA and telcos use blocking statistics to identify trends and inform disruption activities.
• We announced the payment of a $413,160 penalty by Circles.Life after we found it failed to comply with customer identity verification rules designed to prevent mobile number fraud. We also accepted a 3-year court enforceable undertaking committing Circles.Life to a review of its compliance with identity verification rules.
• We engaged with industry and international regulators on potential initiatives that would require telcos to uplift existing Know Your Customer and Know Your Traffic obligations to prevent scams.
• We gave anonymised scam call data to telcos to inform their blocking activities.
• We collaborated with the National Anti-Scam Centre to share information on scam trends and align educational material for consumers.
• We worked alongside telcos, government agencies, international regulators and big brands to disrupt phone scams by providing data and information.

We routinely give compliance alerts to businesses that have been the subject of spam or telemarketing complaints. These alerts provide businesses with an opportunity to take early corrective action where they identify compliance issues. Fixing small issues before they become serious matters early can help businesses avoid costly penalties for non-compliance.

In most cases, businesses that receive a compliance alert fix the issue and we do not receive any further complaints from the public. However, in some cases we continue to receive complaints about the business. 

We will be targeting businesses that fail to take action to address compliance issues. Where issues persist, we may take more action, including investigation. Where we find breaches of the rules, the penalties can be serious. 

If your business receives a compliance alert from us, you should take it seriously. Review your practices and ensure they align with spam and telemarketing rules. Learn more about your obligations and how to comply.

At the end of this quarter, we have:

• opened 2 new investigations
• progressed 2 other investigations
• finalised 4 investigations
• monitored compliance with 21 court-enforceable undertakings in force.

For the 12 months to the end of the quarter, we took an average of 4.2 months to complete an investigation. All investigations were completed within 6 months.

View our enforcement actions for breaches of spam and telemarketing laws.

View our enforcement actions for breaches of scam laws. 

Finalised investigations

In this quarter:

• we received more than 5,300 complaints from consumers about alleged breaches of telemarketing and spam laws
• solar, retail and real estate services were the most complained-about industries
• scams made up 7.4% of the complaints we received (4.2% of spam complaints and 9.0% of telemarketing complaints).

Complaints received by financial year

Note: We also received 49 complaints about commercial instant messages in 2024–25.

Complaints received about scam calls and SMS 

Note: These are a subset of all complaints received by financial year.

Where we receive enough information to identify the alleged caller or sender, we alert businesses about potential compliance issues raised in complaints. One alert can relate to several issues or complaints. 

Compliance alerts given to businesses

Find out more about scam, spam and telemarketing rules, including how to make a complaint. 

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Accessibility file: Action on scams, spam and telemarketing – April to June 2025