Devilishly clever? Pauline Hanson’s plan to expose ‘scum scammers’
Senator Pauline Hanson has urged the government to brand overseas scammers with the Mark of the Beast to warn Australians they are at risk.
Foreign scammers can currently use the internet to call into Australia using technology that allows them to purchase a local number, so their number appears to be a domestic call.
Senator Hanson told A Current Affair she wanted to change the law so that those calls appear with a special prefix, 666.
The calls would come with a recorded warning telling the call recipient to be careful.
666 is the "Number of the Beast" according to the Book of Revelations in the Bible and has been long associated in history and culture with the Devil.
"It's basically saying, be warned, this could be the Devil calling," Senator Hanson said of her proposal.
"You know what, to me they are the Devil."
The One Nation leader said overseas scams had cost Australians about $57 million.
People have been warned of scammers pretending to represent the Australian Tax Office and even the police.
"I think they're scum, I think they're lowlifes, and they're preying on the vulnerable," Senator Hanson said.
She has written to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield requesting the new legislation.
Bond University criminologist Wayne Petherick said apps such as True Caller already offered mobile phones similar protection.
"(The caller's number) will come up on the screen as an unidentified spam number, or if the number has originated from overseas rather than being a domestic number," he said.
For more information on protecting yourself from scams, visit the government's Scamwatch site.
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