Issue Date:  -  Tuesday, 15 April 2003

Consumer watch dog celebrates a year of success

WA ScamNet - www.docep.wa.gov.au

The Government's fight-back weapon against online and conventional scams, rorts and rip-offs is one year old today and according to the Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker, it has been an outstanding success thanks to WA Consumers.

"WA ScamNet had a humble beginning in April of last year when officers working within our retail and services area identified the need to enhance our operation when identifying and profiling the many types and numbers of scams targeting WA.

"Rather than following the traditional line taken by consumer protection agencies which is to throw these things in the bin we recognised that a wealth of information on scam operators was being lost", Mr. Walker said.

"The system operates by inviting people who get scams to send them to WA ScamNet which allows a profile to emerge and protective measures to be developed.

"This in turn produces effective early warnings of what to look out for and severely hampers the efforts of those who would separate us from our hard earned cash", he said.

* 12,700 website visits

* In one year 6,054 items have been netted

* Global extortion scams (Nigerian style) top the list with 1,642 items

* Almost one thousand consumers have contributed from across WA

* Scams come from 14 different countries

* Four mail processing operations closed down

* A conservative estimate of half a million dollars in consumer losses has been prevented

"Mass email and traditional mail scams and schemes involve costs to the operators and they will only succeed if a percentage of consumers respond. Our aim is to reduce the response rate by seeking out the latest scams and alerting consumers while they are still active thus blocking supply of victims ", the Commissioner said.

Regular alerts, warnings and consumer messages appear on www.docep.wa.gov.au <http://www.docep.wa.gov.au> that has a WA ScamNet link on its home page.

Scams and other suspicious material can be sent to WA ScamNet by:

Email: wascamnet@docep.wa.gov.au <mailto:wascamnet@docep.wa.gov.au> Fax: 9282 0862

Post: WA ScamNet, Reply Paid 64772, Locked Bag 14, Cloisters Square WA 6850