Legal advice
Step 2: legal advice
If you fell victim to phone spam or scam, you should always consult an expert that is well versed in the matter of consumer protection laws. You can find a lawyer by typing “lawyer” and your city name into google search to find a legal consultant in your area, but there is more. Use the JustAnswer question box to ask a professional online lawyer. Choose “Australian law” once you enter the website to get the Information for your country.In addition, inform yourself about the current jurisdiction in Australia. There are institutions in every country that can help you out, mostly through information and complaint systems.
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The TIO (Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman) is an independent and free resolution service for handling complaints regarding telecommunication, especially concerning issues with the service providers.
Make a complaint at TIO.
OAIC
The Privacy Act 1988 is one of the laws that are important for consumer protection as it is there to regulate the handling of personal information about individuals, namely its collection, usage, storage and disclosure. Privacy complaints can be made to the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Due to the Privacy Act it has the responsibility to investigate and hopefully resolve privacy complaints through conciliation as they are not using any fines.
Make a complaint to the OAIC.
ACCC SCAMwatch
The SCAMwatch of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) informs consumers about the dangers of scams and how they can be avoided. The ACCC works with different state agencies to provide consumers with knowledge on scams and how to prevent them. The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) for example was specially built for this purpose.
Report a scam to ACCC.
For any complaint, please consider that you have to write down as much information about the call as you can get, which is foremost: name of the caller or company; number; date, time and frequency of calls. Only then the institutions will be able to take action against scammers.
Of course, you might type "lawyer" and your city name into google as well.
