A national anti-scams centre is being set up to combat scams and online fraud, after Australians reported losing billions of dollars online in the past year.

The federal government will spend $86 million to stop online fraud. $58 million will help build a centre to report scams, assist in law enforcement and vulnerable communities.

The government says the new initiative will change how scams are dealt with by facilitating faster responses to reports, establishing a ‘hit squad’ of experts to act on trends and creating a white list of approved phone numbers from authorised agencies.

Last month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported Australians lost $3.1 billion to scams in 2022.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the centre would see an increase in scam reports allowing people to act quicker on known scams.

“We know we’re only getting and hearing about the tip of the iceberg at the moment,” he said.

“We want to know more, so we can act faster and act better to ensure that we can reduce the losses.”

Photo:  Online shopping by Daniel Foster available HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has not been modified