Scammers are paying for ads on Meta, X, and Tiktok to rip off Australians

If you have a phone or an internet connection, then you've almost certainly had a scammer try to take your hard-earned money.

Text messages telling you to click a link to pay a road toll fine, social media posts promising to make you rich. Scams are rife.

Older Australians are a target.

Scammers aren't mugs. They're cunning criminals. They target scams to get the most bang for their buck.

Older Australians have worked hard their whole life. They've got superannuation savings and scammers know it.

This week's annual Scamwatch data shows people aged over 65 made up 25 per cent of all losses reported.

More than half of the losses to scams last year were investment scams. The scammer asks you to invest in something with guaranteed returns that seem too good to be true. Because they are too good to be true.

Increasingly this scam will start with an ad on social media.

I was told about a scam on Instagram that was all too familiar. A scammer poses as a financial adviser providing free advice promising huge returns.

All that's needed is a deposit to get started. And then another transfer to upgrade the account because of the 'huge profit' that has been generated. And then another transfer to pay a tax bill.

$15,000 later, the person was bled dry.

But there's another part to this story that is little known. Those scam ads on social media - Facebook, X, Tiktok and Instagram - social media companies are making big money out of them.

Someone is paying for every ad you see on social media. Scammers are paying Meta, or X, or Tiktok to target their scam ads to their victims.

Well, the government has put social media companies on notice. They must do better.

Meta and Tiktok are not plucky little start-ups. They're some of the biggest companies with the most advanced technology in the world.

If they can work out what type of sneaker you like or what kind of music you're into, then they can get scammers off their platform.

This year, the Albanese government will introduce legislation imposing mandatory obligations on social media companies - as well as banks and telecommunications providers - to disrupt scams and protect their customers.

We will set a high bar of expectations on the social media companies.

If they don't comply? Fines and compensation for victims will follow.

This is part two of our scammer crackdown.

The first was setting up a National Anti Scam Centre in July last year and empowering the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to take down fake investment websites - they've already removed about five thousand.

These initiatives have seen annual scam losses come down for the first time in eight years. But for those aged over 65, losses remain stubbornly high.

There's more to do and I'm determined to see those losses come down.

For older Australians in particular, the government is working hard on education and disruption activities, so these criminals have no chance.

If nothing else, remember these top tips:

Stephen Jones MP is the member for Whitlam in the Illawarra, NSW, the assistant treasurer and minister for financial services and has contributed this opinion piece.