Fraud and scam prevention

One-time codes have become an increasingly common method of two-step verification and fraud protection when making payments, changing your account information, or sharing sensitive information online. 

Although this is an important step, it doesn’t always guarantee your security, especially if you’ve been the victim of a fraudulent SIM swap or port-out. 

You can choose additional two-step verification methods via the My Telstra app. These include Biometrics (Face & Fingerprint ID) and Telstra PIN.

Our team works closely with the banking industry and other sectors to help them identify recent SIM swaps or port-out activity on your service that may indicate you’ve been the victim of fraud.

When a request is made by a trusted partner we may provide them with insights that indicate suspicious activity, suggesting a scam or fraudulent activity in relation to a phone service.

The role we play is to help other organisations piece together the puzzle. Shared intelligence can indicate to a bank or other organisation that they may want to obtain more information or take preventative action.

You can find out more information about how we handle personal information, and how we will be sharing risk assessments with other organisations in our Privacy Statement, which you can access at Privacy at Telstra

Scam Indicator is a tool developed by Quantium Telstra in partnership with CommBank to identify and prevent phone scams.

Learn how the Telstra Scam Indicator works

Fraud Indicator is a tool developed by Quantium Telstra in collaboration with CommBank that enables intelligence about unusual mobile service usage to be shared securely to help detect identity theft.

Analysis of unusual mobile service usage can help trusted organisations distinguish between genuine customers and ‘bad actors’.

Telstra is looking to make this technology available to other trusted organisations in future as part of its commitment to tackling fraud.

CAMARA is an open-source project within Linux Foundation to define, develop and test Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that are built upon global telco network capabilities. Telstra participates in CAMARA and is exploring how APIs may benefit our customers, trusted partners, and service providers that you have a relationship with. 

Examples of our explorations into APIs include: 

• Number Verification API is a service that enables businesses to seamlessly confirm the ownership of a mobile phone number, replacing the need for one-time codes (OTCs). It helps to make authentication simpler during app onboarding, logins and password resets. 
• SIM Swap API is a service that enables insights into whether a SIM card has been swapped recently and other changes in SIM card status. It helps businesses enhance security by preventing fraud, protecting accounts, and validating transactions, such as when detecting suspicious financial transactions or password resets. 

To view and update certain preference settings, go to Consent Management.  

CAMARA capabilities are constantly evolving and may change from time to time. Learn more about CAMARA. 

• A credit enquiry / sold debt / default listing from Telstra is on my credit file and I'm not a current or former Telstra customer
• I'm being charged for a new mobile device that I didn't order
• I received suspicious notifications from Telstra shortly before my mobile service stopped working ('SOS only' mode)
• I was notified that my account information (contact details/ passwords) were changed, but I did not request this
• I received an online, email, SMS or telephone scam. Check our list of active scams

As part of our Identity Theft & Fraud Policy (PDF, 161KB), we’re committed to helping you protect yourself from identity theft, scams, and fraud. We’ll work with you to recover and restore your Telstra accounts and services if they’ve been impacted by fraud and help you setup your accounts to be as secure as possible to prevent future unauthorized access attempts. 

We’ll also support you when you tell us that a Telstra account has been opened using your details without your knowledge and you’ve been a victim of identity theft, even if you’re not a Telstra customer.