Phone scams cost Australians around $110 million a year, with global losses topping US$1 trillion. A WA-based innovator’s solution to help people hang up on scammers has achieved iAward and international success.
Paul on stage for his APICTA win
While many people are alert to common phone scam hallmarks of a slight delay or suspicious number, scammers are increasingly using AI to boost their sophistication, making scams harder to detect.
It’s a problem that WA-based telecommunications software company Norwood Systems is helping to solve. “The trouble with AI is that bad people are getting better and better at weaponising it,” says Norwood CEO and Founder Paul Ostergaard.
Amid this “rising tide” of threats to consumers, Norwood developed Call Protect, which Paul says uses AI as a “force for good”. Call Protect is part of Norwood’s Open Span platform, which provides “plumbing” to help telco operators more easily integrate other AI applications into their network to offer new services to customers.
“Call Protect sits there quietly in the background during a phone conversation and only jumps in when it recognises that there is an inappropriate conversation taking place,” Paul explains.
“It’s looking for evidence that you’re being asked to divulge information that might compromise your bank account, your email or security on your PC.” A warning, which the scammer cannot hear, is then played to the person on the phone.
Paul says Norwood’s work with OpenAI since early 2021 has been key to the solution’s effectiveness. “We’ve developed a real competency and strength into how to wield language models to detect these sorts of things but to also run them economically.”
A journey of persistence to international success
Call Protect won a Merit in the Business & Industry category at the 2025 iAwards National Ceremony, adding to previous iAwards successes. However, international recognition at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards – for which the iAwards is the only pathway for Australian innovators – had eluded Norwood in 2014 and 2017.
But in true entrepreneurial spirit, Norwood tried again at the latest APICTAs in December. Their efforts were validated with a win in the Industrial and Infrastructure Solutions Award category. What got them over the line this time? “I think we’re probably addressing a more relevant problem today than we might have been 10 years ago and it seemed to really resonate with the judges.”
Paul says awards programs offer more than recognition. “We enjoy the intellectual workout. It’s useful to get our assumptions questioned and challenged by all these very experienced people in IT.” And showing the team their work is being recognised at a national and international level makes them “feel good” about their mission, he adds.
Moving forward with persistence and confidence
Following a successful proof of concept with a major Singaporean company achieving 99% accuracy in detecting classic scams, and completion of an RFP with a large US operator, the team is preparing for production rollout.
Paul says the same “sheer persistence” that led to international recognition underpins start-up success. “If you feel like you truly believe you are in a space that’s valuable, it’s going to take a lot longer than you think, but don’t give up because you might see some really good success.”
Note: Western Australian innovators enter the iAwards National competition through the state-based INCITE Awards. Tasmanian innovators enter through the TasICT Awards