The Wire

Meta is allowing deepfake AI videos impersonating Australian public figures to remain on Facebook despite repeated removal requests, according to Independent Australia's investigation. The publication reports that economist Stephen Koukoulas, identified as the fourth most impersonated person in Australia, appealed to Meta to take down damaging fake videos of himself but was refused, with Meta claiming insufficient evidence the content was fake.

Independent Australia alleges Meta profits from the scams through sponsored posts while failing to act on them. The investigation is the latest in a series documenting what the outlet describes as Meta's use of its platform to spread misleading content, including AI-generated images falsely attributed to the ABC and coordinated bot farm activity promoting political content.

Global payment processor Nuvei will pay $4.85 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the firm facilitated merchant fraud, the FTC said on Tuesday.

The company was alleged to have opened and maintained payment processing accounts for merchants engaged in deception, including tech support scams that took millions of dollars from consumers, according to the FTC press release, FTC press (US consumer protection) reports.

The former business partner of a man accused of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme told a Melbourne court on Thursday that he discovered a secret cache of loan files after his colleague's death in 2023.

Shane Maguire gave evidence during public examinations called by liquidators, telling the court he found the files in a cabinet in the office of his late colleague John Adams, Sarah Danckert reports for The Age.

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are continuing to charge $15 overlimit fees to long-term credit card customers despite the practice being banned for new accounts in June 2012.

The Gillard-era reforms outlawed default overlimit fees for accounts opened after mid-2012, but allowed banks to continue charging them to established customers who haven't opted out, according to The Age.

The number of missing Australians following the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods has dropped from 43 to 38 after five citizens were confirmed safe, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Wednesday.

Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly said on ABC TV that the government held grave concerns for those yet to be located amid ongoing communications and logistical challenges in the disaster zone, Cessnock Advertiser reports.

Western Australia's Consumer Protection agency executed a warrant at Perth real estate firm Ideal Realty on Thursday following allegations the owners used a shell company to buy a client's home without disclosure.

Consumer Protection Commissioner Trish Blake said investigators are examining documents related to the 2024 transaction involving vendor Chao "Jack" Wu, after new evidence allowed the case to be reopened, Rebecca Trigger reports for ABC business (AU).

Sen. Mark A. Villar said an anti-fraud law has strengthened investigations and increased the possibility of victims recovering lost money.

Villar welcomed the report from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas general counsel Roberto L. Figueroa during a Senate hearing, according to a statement on Wednesday, Indonesian scams reports.

Sydney-based BCR Advisory was appointed as the liquidator of Perth-based manufacturer Bella Modular on Monday following the company's collapse.

Dozens of customers and contractors have lost money, with some clients paying more than $100,000 for transportable homes that were never delivered, according to the ABC, ABC business (AU) reports.

House prices in Australia are roughly double the median price in the United States, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The median Australian house price is now about 9.7 times the average annual income, compared with 4.8 times in the United States, the publication reports.

Woolworths New Zealand is exploring moving its customer care operations to Sydney, a proposal that could result in around 130 job losses, the union Workers First said on Tuesday. Staff were told of the plan at a 1 p.m. meeting; the company confirmed it was considering "integration" with its Australian operation and said it was offering redeployment opportunities while seeking feedback by 15 September.

Workers First deputy secretary Rudd Hughes said the proposal prioritised profit over people and would harm service quality. "Someone calling from Paekākāriki to inquire about a product return, for example, may find it much more difficult to deal with an Australian who lacks local knowledge and local experience," he said. Hughes noted many staff in customer care were solo parents who would struggle to find comparable work.

Woolworths New Zealand reported $8.49 billion in sales for the year to June, up from $8.29 billion the previous year, with earnings rising to $163 million from $150 million, RNZ business (NZ) reports.

Bathla Group's administrator, Teneo, said it is preparing to wind down the property developer by the end of Tuesday after lenders failed to commit $20 million in emergency funding at a Monday night meeting. The company has accumulated debts exceeding $3.2 billion, has no cash and has not paid some of its 350 staff for eight weeks.

Teneo senior managing director Stephen Longley told the Today Show the situation was "very dire" and said the company could not complete its 45 active construction projects without additional funding. Some private lenders have taken control of individual worksites; PAG has committed to continue paying contractors on a 312-apartment development in Pemulwuy in Sydney's west. Bathla's administration has left about 2,000 homes under construction and another 13,000 in its development pipeline at risk across NSW, ABC business (AU) reports.

The Australian Government has released exposure draft legislation to update privacy laws and address risks from artificial intelligence and wearable devices, the Attorney-General's Department said.

Submissions on the proposed Privacy Amendment (Personal Data Protection) Bill 2026 close on Friday 18 September 2026, consultations.ag.gov.au reports.

Multiple browser extensions on the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge add-ons marketplace deployed a malware framework to steal cryptocurrency, sensitive data, and browser history, according to application security company Socket. The investigation indicates the operation may have been active since early 2024.

Socket said five of the extensions were acquired from their original creators and injected with malware via automatic updates. One extension, named "Enable Right Click & Copy — Smart Unlock + OCR," had at least 70,000 Chrome users and 10,000 Edge users when it turned malicious, Bill Toulas reports for BleepingComputer.

Grocery prices in Australia rose 8.5 per cent over the 16 months to July 2026, outpacing a wage growth rate of 3.3 per cent for the year to March, according to consumer research company Canstar and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Woolworths reported a headline profit of $1.1 billion, while Coles reported a full-year profit of $1.1 billion, ABC News reports.

The federal government passed laws this month imposing a 2.75% charge on digital advertising revenue for companies earning A$250 million or more in Australia unless they strike deals to fund local media, The Conversation reports.

The Trump administration characterised the approach as "foreign extortion" in April, while US technology companies, industry groups and some Republicans have criticised the measure as discriminatory and called for retaliation against Australia.

Malaysia will reinstate a 300-litre monthly limit per citizen for subsidised RON95 transport fuel, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Sunday.

The measure is part of several steps announced to address rising living costs, according to Reuters reporting, Channel NewsAsia business reports.

The Brave browser has introduced an email aliases feature in version 1.94 to let users generate disposable addresses when signing up for services, according to BleepingComputer.

The feature allows users to keep their real email addresses hidden while forwarding messages, addressing privacy gaps where email addresses are stored on website servers, BleepingComputer reports. – BleepingComputer

Australian consumers purchasing appetite-altering GLP-1 drugs are also buying more protein powders, vitamins and beauty products, Chemist Warehouse data shows.

The shopping basket size of a GLP-1 customer is 40% larger than those not buying weight-loss products, Sigma Healthcare chief executive Vikesh Ramsunder told analysts after the company's earnings result, Guardian business reports.

Philippine airfares will rise in early September as the Civil Aeronautics Board raised the allowable fuel surcharge to Level 13.

The surcharge will apply from Sept. 1 to 15, pushing domestic fees to between P423 and P1,237 and international fees to between P1,396.74 and P10,385.42, the regulator said in an Aug. 27 advisory, Inquirer business (PH) reports.

Residents in northern Tasmania are preparing a legal challenge against the George Town Council's approval of a multi-billion-dollar artificial intelligence data centre, ABC News reports.

Locals living near the proposed Bell Bay site argue planning laws are outdated, citing the use of a 33-year-old framework to assess modern technology, according to ABC News, Emily Smith reports for ABC business (AU).

Medical device maker Boston Scientific said a cyberattack detected on August 25 disrupted its IT systems globally, impairing its ability to process and ship customer orders. The company has activated incident response procedures and hired external cybersecurity experts, but said the timeline for restoring affected systems is not yet known.

Boston Scientific, which makes stents, pacemakers and other devices used in minimally invasive procedures, operates 13 manufacturing facilities across 127 countries with annual revenue over $20 billion. The company disclosed the breach to the Securities and Exchange Commission but provided no details on the attack type, the attacker's identity, initial access method, or whether data was stolen. BleepingComputer reports no ransomware gang has publicly claimed the breach.

Two Western Australian men appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday charged over their alleged roles in the international cybercrime syndicate TeamPCP, which allegedly stole data from more than half a million users worldwide. Louis Gaebler and Ruben Thomson, aged 23 and 21, were arrested on Wednesday following a four-month investigation by international agencies and police raids across Perth and Mandurah.

Police allege the syndicate inserted malicious code into open-source software repositories in a supply chain attack launched in March. The breach compromised government systems, academic institutions and private businesses, resulting in the theft of more than 500,000 credentials and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, according to the Australian Federal Police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rebecca Peppiatt reports for The Age.