Banking industry launches new campaign to help customers beat the scammers

The Australian Banking Association (ABA) has launched a new campaign to raise awareness of a series of scam scenarios and provide customers with tools to beat the scammers.

With the tag line ‘hear the alarm bells’, the campaign highlights the importance of customer vigilance against this criminal activity.  

The ads feature important messages to help customers to spot a scam including: 

• Bank impersonation: ‘Banks will never call you and ask you to transfer money to another account’. 

• E-Toll scams: ‘Never click on suspicious texts, links or emails’. 

• Investment scams: ‘Always check you’re dealing with a legitimate organisation’. 

• Invoice scams: ‘Never transfer money unless you’re certain it’s to the right person’. 

ABA Chief Executive Officer, Anna Bligh said the new campaign highlights the need for Australians to pause and offers practical tips to help customers protect themselves from scammers.

“As scams grow ever more complex and sophisticated, vigilance is required from all of us at all times,” Ms Bligh said.

There were 256,842 scams worth $596 million reported to ACCC’s Scamwatch in the 12 months to February 2023 – an average of 21,404 scams a month, worth $49.6 million each month.

 

Ms Bligh said: “This new national campaign has important messages to fight scams, reinforcing that we all need to ‘stop and listen for alarm bells – if it doesn’t feel quite right, it might be a scam.

“Australians can take effective, preventative steps to help protect themselves against fraud and scams. This new campaign is one of a range of important initiatives banks are undertaking with the community, government and other industries all playing an important role to fight this crime.

“The campaign includes reminders such as ‘Banks will never call you and ask you to transfer money to another account’ and to ‘Always check you’re dealing with a legitimate organisation’.”

Ms Bligh said the campaign also highlights PayID as an important tool in preventing scams.

“PayID helps customers to know who they are paying, before they pay. There are now 14.7 million Australians registered for PayID.”

More information

Key tips on avoiding scams, remember: 

Banks will never: 

• call and ask people to transfer funds to another account over the phone. 

• contact you to ask for any account or personal details in an unsolicited text or email. 

• ask for online banking passcodes or passwords over email, text or phone. 

• ask for remote access to your devices. 

• threaten you to take immediate action on an issue.  

 To never: 

• provide banking information, passwords or two-factor identification codes over the phone or via text to anyone even if you know them – contact the bank through official channels only. 

• login to your online banking via links sent through email or text. 

• click on suspicious emails, links or texts. 

• transfer money unless you’re certain it’s going to the right person. 

• provide personal information to anyone you don’t know personally unless you know it’s for a legitimate purpose. 

 To always: 

• pause to question the authenticity of a text message, an email, a call or a person who claims to be from a trusted organisation. If in doubt, call back on the publicly listed phone number before taking any action.  

• register a PayID securely through your bank and not via a third party and use PayID where you can. 

• set-up two factor authentication to protect your accounts and online banking. 

• check the legitimacy of any invoices or bills and use PayID wherever possible. 

• immediately report any suspicious activity directly to your bank.