Financial wellbeing advocate says “scambling” spreading like wildfire in Aboriginal communities

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Financial counsellors across Australia are warning of "catastrophic" impacts of gambling scams, known as "scambling", which they say are spreading like wildfire in Aboriginal communities. It comes as new data shows $2.8 million in scam losses were reported by first nations people in the first six months of this year. Kelly Gulliver is from CatholicCareNT. She says it's a multi-layered problem.

Transcript

00:00Well, scambling is very complex. It's basically a combination of a scam, online, offshore,

00:09illegal gambling and micro money laundering.

00:14And it's a particular issue in Aboriginal communities, is it?

00:18It certainly is. It appears that Aboriginal communities have been geo-targeted by overseas

00:24criminal groups. They're enticed to play. It's incredibly addictive. And like you say,

00:30it is definitely spreading like wildfire.

00:32Well, how popular is it? How many people are getting caught up in this?

00:35Well, I've done some mapping, Ros, and there's about 80 remote communities in the Northern

00:40Territory where people are playing. And in those communities, it's quite widespread.

00:46It's really affecting a lot of individuals and families.

00:50And how much are people spending or losing? What financial damage is happening?

00:56Well, sadly, these people are already in poverty and they're struggling financially before this

01:04happened. So it's hard to put a figure on the numbers. It's quite harmful. We're seeing daily

01:11multiple transactions day after day in bank statements, going across to foreign pay ID accounts,

01:19never to be seen again. So it's affecting, you know, their ability to cope with day-to-day

01:25living expenses.

01:26Are there consumer protections in place at all to combat these sites?

01:30Well, sadly, with online and offshore gambling, they're not regulated in Australia. So there's

01:38currently no consumer protections. We're calling out for government regulators and the banking sector,

01:46even, you know, financial counsellors and everyone to come together for a coordinated effort to try and

01:53implement some safeguards and strategies to prevent the harm.

01:57And Kelly, how can people identify these scams? What are the telltale signs or red flags?

02:03Well, they basically look very much like a legitimate gambling site. They've reproduced them to look very

02:11real. There's music and flashing lights and free spins, just like a normal online poker machine

02:17game. People are usually targeted through WhatsApp and messaging platforms, Facebook, social media,

02:26and they're enticed to play with free spins and small wins early. And then the wins dry up. It looks

02:34in a bank statement like multiple pay ID transfers to people with names that would normally be from

02:40overseas that Indigenous people may not transfer to. And some of them are even fake retail sites.

02:47So what can people do then if they find that they have been caught up in this?

02:53Well, what they can do is notify their bank, call their bank immediately, tell them what's happening,

02:59ask them to put blocks on the payees and also on their account, open another secure bank account,

03:08definitely block the actual sites and the phone numbers that they're getting all the messages from.

03:14They're very persistent and they're harassing people, so they'll need to block them or they'll

03:18keep chasing them. They can also reach out to the National Debt Helpline and Mob Strong Debt Strong

03:25or come and see one of their local money management workers in their community or their financial

03:31and well-being people.

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