22 May 2024
The Australian Banking Association today welcomes the release of new data from the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) showing scam losses continue to fall.
The latest NASC quarterly report shows overall scam losses reported to Scamwatch in the 2024 March quarter were down by 10.8% compared to the previous quarter. Whilst losses reported to the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange fell by 41.2%.
ABA CEO Anna Bligh said banks continue to step up to the plate to protect Australians from scams.
“This is further evidence that inroads are being made in the fight against scammers,” Ms Bligh said.
“Whilst it’s encouraging that losses are falling, Australians are still losing too much money to the criminal gangs behind many of the scams that are out there.
“Banks have some of the strongest anti-scam protections in the world and continue to stop payments to high-risk crypto exchanges as well as transfers to suspect accounts.
“Our industry is also pushing ahead with implementing our Scam-Safe Accord which will set an even higher standard of protection by banks to protect consumers from scammers.
“We also welcome the $37.3 million in additional funding in last week’s Federal Budget for the implementation of mandatory industry scams codes.
“Banks back mandatory industry codes. However, in order to best shield Australians from scammers, it’s critical that all part of the scams chain get behind these mandatory codes, including social media platforms.”
The banking industry’s Scam-Safe Accord includes:
- a $100 million investment by banks in a new confirmation of payee system, ensuring people can confirm they are transferring money to the person they intend to
- introducing more warnings and payment delays to protect customers
- adopting further technology and controls to help prevent identity fraud, such as the use of at least one biometric check for new individual customers opening accounts
- investing in a major expansion of intelligence sharing across the sector
- all banks to implement anti-scams strategies.
More information on the latest National Anti-Scam Centre quarterly report can be found here.
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