Expanded anti-scam technology helping protect elderly customers from phone call scams

CommBank and Telstra today announced their anti-scam technology Scam Indicator has been expanded to cover landlines, to help detect suspicious calls in real-time, helping to avoid money being lost to scammers.

The anti-scam technology, which was conceived and developed in partnership with Quantium Telstra¹ to help protect joint Telstra and CommBank customers, was launched to cover mobile phone calls in October 2023.

Recent Telstra data² shows more than 85 per cent of residential landlines services are registered to Australians over the age of 60.

Further, National Anti-Scam Centre data³ reveals:

• Those aged over 65 lost more money to scammers in 2023 than any other age group and were the only group that did not experience a decrease in reported losses during that year.
• Phone calls were the no.1 contact method used by scammers in 2023 based on the amount lost
• Those aged over 65 made the most scam reports in the first quarter of 2024.

Quantium Telstra CEO Sandy Cameron praised the Scam Indicator technology and the collaboration with CommBank.

"Protecting Australians from scams is a team sport and Scam Indicator is a powerful example of how we're stronger when we work together to help protect our customers from scammers. Landlines are still an essential service for many Australians, but they can also be a target for opportunistic scammers who prey on people's trust and goodwill. Expanding Scam Indicator to cover landlines means we’re able to help safeguard those in our community that are most vulnerable to being targeted by cyber criminals," Mr Cameron said.

The anti-scam technology indicates whether a customer may be on a call to a scammer. CommBank’s Fraud team can apply holds, blocks and declines and proactively send real-time alerts to the impacted customer, for example via a message through the CommBank app or NetBank, to help stop the scam in real-time.

CommBank’s General Manager of Group Fraud James Roberts said: “Scammers are often bold enough to pick up the phone and talk directly with unsuspecting victims. They create a sense of urgency and use impersonation tactics to often trick their target to download software that gives them remote access to their victim’s computer.

“As an example, our teams recently used this technology to help stop an elderly customer from being scammed when she was talking to a scammer using her landline. The customer had been convinced by the scammer to download software that gave them full access to her computer and banking information. Scam Indicator technology allowed us to monitor the customer’s banking activity and decline around $70,000 in attempted scam transactions, so the money didn’t end up leaving the customer’s account.”⁴

Scam Indicator is used by CommBank and Telstra across their joint retail customer base.

Since launch, it has contributed to help protect joint CommBank and Telstra customers from losing millions of dollars to scammers – money that could have been impossible to recover.

“CommBank and Telstra are highly focused on helping to keep their customers safe and are committed to partnering and working with others in the ecosystem to improve early detection and prevention of scams.

“Working together with Telstra is a good example of the power of collaboration, using data and technology for good with security and privacy at the forefront. We know we are stronger together against the scammers when we take a whole of ecosystem approach – banks, social media, telcos, government, and also consumers, all have a role to play,” Mr Roberts said.

This recent addition of landlines represents a 25 per cent increase in potential coverage, helping protect more Australians from scams.

¹ Scam Indicator technology was conceived and developed in partnership with Quantium Telstra to help protect joint Telstra and CommBank customers from high-risk scam situations in real time. With security and privacy at the forefront, it uses sophisticated algorithms to analyse secure indicators to then flag a potential scam call in real-time to enable CommBank to notify the customer, to interrupt and potentially block the scam payment, depending on the level of concern. The technology was launched in October 2023 to cover mobile phone calls and has now been expanded to also cover landlines.

² As at August 2024.\

³ A recent report from the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) on scams activity for 2023 shows people over 65 lost more money than other age groups. Older Australians were the only age group that did not experience a decrease in reported losses during 2023. Phone calls was the top contact method based on the amount reported lost, followed by social media and email. The NASC January to March 2024 Quarterly Update shows people aged 65 and over made the most scam reports in the quarter with 28.9 per cent of all losses reported to Scamwatch despite only making up 16 per cent of the population.

⁴ Margaret, a CommBank customer of over 40 years, received a call to her landline from scammers pretending to be from a trusted organisation. The scammers convinced her to install remote access software that gave them control of her computer and resulted in her screen going blank. They then preceded to attempt approximately $70,000 in fraudulent payments from her account. In real time, CommBank utilised the Scam Indicator technology to uncover suspicious indicators and upon receiving confirmation from Margaret declined all payments resulting in no loss to the customer.

ENDS