In the offices of Magellan Logistics in outer Melbourne, workers spend their days helping people import and export goods all over the world.

But late last year, the company started getting calls every day from people about shipping containers they had bought.

The thing is, Magellan Logistics has never sold shipping containers.

"We are in a lovely office with lots of desks and people working away, phones, computers, all of that," Melissa Wraith said.

It soon became obvious scammers were posing as the company, and running multiple Facebook pages under variations of Magellan Logistics's name.

The scammers were offering shipping containers to eager buyers.

Magellan employees reported the pages to Facebook, but even when they were taken down, they would pop back up again the next day.

"I've lost track of the number of times I've reported these pages. Whenever I go to look at them, I report them again," Ms Wraith said.

Millions of dollars lost to social media scams

Social media is delivering a healthy return for scammers in Australia.

According to the ACCC's Scamwatch, it is a much better way to make money than scamming on the phone, email or text messaging.

In the past year, Australians have been fleeced more than $21.5 million from scams running on social networking sites.

It has prompted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to call for urgent government action — which could potentially lead to a world-first digital platforms ombudsman.

"Consumers and small businesses find it almost impossible to have their disputes resolved with digital platforms when problems arise," chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

While the ACCC works with social media companies to take content down, the commission has no power to force the company to act.

Now, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) Cynthia Gebert has told the government she wants the gig as the country's — and the world's — first digital platforms ombudsman, helping people with problems like dealing with scams and being locked out of their accounts.

The aim is for the new ombudsman to officiate in disputes between platforms and users and, based on the prevalence of smartphone use, there are plenty of areas it could help.

"We have the expertise to help consumers and the digital platforms find resolution with complaints and highlight systemic improvements that can create meaningful change," Ms Gebert said.

In her current role, Ms Gebert helps thousands of people deal with disputes with telcos and internet providers, but she is unable to assist if people are having trouble with social media companies and messaging apps.

"At this point, there's a limited amount that we could do and this is really the opportunity to improve consumer protections and build trust and confidence," she told the ABC.

"We'd generally be referring you to a local, state-based consumer affairs organisation.

"If we refer you to the ACCC, that'd be useful data for them, but they're not going to be stepping in on an individual level to get complaints resolved.

While the ACCC would like to see an independent umpire appointed, it worries the job is too big for the telecommunications ombudsman on top of her current role unless resources are significantly boosted.

"We recommended the role should be undertaken by a new digital platform ombuds to be appropriately resourced to deal with a high volume of complaints and disputes and with the technical expertise to meaningfully assist," Ms Cass-Gottelieb said.