Commonwealth Bank of Australia is collaborating with Vodafone to share SMS scam intelligence in near real-time, allowing the telco to identify and disrupt scammers while the bank makes proactive blocks on fraudulent payments.
The pilot project comes as the latest statistics published by Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre in November 2023 show text messages as the most popular delivery method used by fraudsters so far this year, with more than $24.5m being lost to this type of crime during the period.
James Roberts, general manager of group fraud at CBA says there are increased risks at this busy time of year as we head into the festive season.
“Our latest data shows that fraudulent text and email messages are the number one scam trend impacting our customers," he says. "This phenomenon, otherwise known as ‘phishing’, involves fraudsters tricking unsuspecting customers to click on an embedded link and share their online banking and card details, as well as personal information.
“This pilot and timely intelligence sharing between CommBank and Vodafone allows us to proactively investigate and analyse the latest SMS scams in near real-time to ultimately disrupt, detect and proactively block fraudulent payments.”
Vodafone data shows an uptick in fraudulent messages in the lead up to the holidays season with the telco blocking more than 17.6 million SMS scams in September and October, a 45% year-on-year increase.”
Says Roberts: “CommBank has invested about $750m to help protect and defend our customers from cyber security threats, financial crime, and fraud and scams. By collaborating closely with Vodafone, we’re focused on helping to minimise financial harm associated with the ever-evolving threat of SMS scams.”
The initiative is the latest fraud-busting venture rolled out by the country's main banks and follows last month's agreement on a raft of reforms to keep customers safe from scammers, including a $100 million investment to build a new Confirmation of Payee system and the introduction of more warnings, delays and friction in the transfer of money.