The ACCC is a member of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce, which was formed in March 2005 and which comprises 21 government regulatory agencies and departments with responsibility for consumer protection regarding frauds and scams. The ACFT also has a range of community, non-government and private sector organisations as partners in the effort to increase the level of scam awareness in the community.
The purpose of the ACFT is to help government members work together to:
enhance the Australian and New Zealand governments' enforcement activity against frauds and scams
run an annual coordinated information campaign for consumers—the National Consumer Fraud Week in March (timed to coincide with Global Consumer Fraud Prevention Month)
involve the private sector and community groups in the information campaign and encourage them to share information they may have on scams and frauds
generate greater interest in research on consumer frauds and scams.
ACFT Agency Forums
The ACFT holds three member agency forums a year, which focus on three key areas for combating consumer fraud:
Research Forum—this forum focuses on research that has been or is being undertaken by ACFT members, outlines findings of recent research of relevance to members and suggests research that could be undertaken in the future to help combat consumer fraud.
Enforcement Forum—this forum focuses on enforcement action and enforcement and disruption approaches in the consumer fraud field.
Education Forum—this forum focuses on education approaches and initiatives of relevance to ACFT members. Members meet to discuss potential education approaches that may assist in raising awareness of consumer fraud more broadly.
Important notice: the ACCC is not responsible for the quality, validity or accuracy of information published on these websites. Links to other websites are provided for convenience and do not constitute endorsement of material on those sites or any associated information, product or service.
The work of the ACFT is greatly assisted by a growing number of government, business and community group partners.
ACFT business partners include leading banks, financial institutions, credit card providers, insurers and telecommunications groups. Community groups and other government organsations throughout Australia also play a vital role in helping the ACFT raise consumer awareness of scams.
ACFT partners all recognise the seriousness of consumer fraud in Australasia and are committed to disseminating the ACFT's message to consumers during the scams awareness week.