Key Points
- Scams in which criminals call, email or message people pretending to be from a bank are reportedly on the rise.
- Across Australia, such scams were responsible for $11 million in losses over nine months in 2023, the ACCC has said.
- SBS News has asked experts how to spot such scams and protect themselves from high-tech scamming operations.
If you've recently received a call from someone claiming to be from a bank, be cautious about sharing any personal information.
It may be an attempt to steal your money.
Scams in which criminals call, email or message people pretending to be from a bank are on the rise, according to a warning from the government's National Anti-Scam Centre.
"The scammers ask you for personal or financial information or to transfer funds or to give them a one-time security code over the phone," the centre's Scamwatch service warned on Friday
"They often claim to be from the bank’s fraud department and might say that there has been a compromised account or suspicious transaction."
Bank impersonation scams were responsible for $11 million in losses across Australia between January and September 2023, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The ACCC also said over-55s accounted for 56 per cent of total losses to impersonation scams.
How do bank impersonation scams work?
If someone contacts you pretending to be a trusted business, friend, or family member to steal money or personal information, that's an impersonation scam.
If the caller pretends to be from a bank, that's a bank impersonation scam.
Troy Hunt, founder of the "Have I Been Pwned" data breach service, said scammers can go after anyone who responds to them, but some individuals are "more valuable" to them.
"We know that some people are higher value targets or work within positions that are more likely to be able to be monetised by a scammer," he told SBS News.
"There are certain positions that are more valuable to scammers. For example, people who may be the executive assistant to someone who's a C-suite executive dealing with bank details or someone who's in a real estate settlement or solicitors."
Scamwatch said people may get a "phone call, email or message [that] looks like it comes from the bank and may even be in "the same message thread as a previous legitimate banking message".
The scammers will say they are investigating a problem with the individual account and ask for their personal or financial information, such as account details or security codes.
"They will then use your account details to steal your money," Scamwatch said.
How to spot bank impersonation scams?
These phone calls or messages may seem very realistic, with scammers using new technology to make themselves sound more convincing.
But Scamwatch says anyone making calls and behaving like this is likely a criminal.
Hunt suggests people should be "very suspicious about any messages that weren't prompted by them".
"Where we're dealing with impersonation. The strategy is always verification. And every single example of someone being scammed by another party, impersonating someone else could have been avoided with sufficient verification," he said.
"Get in touch with the financial institution yourself by locating the details on the websites or possibly even one of the statements that you have and just validating every single claim."
According to Scamwatch, banks will never ask their customers over the phone for online banking passwords, one-time security codes, PINs or tokens, and they never ask their customers to transfer their money to keep it safe.
"Watch out for slight variations in caller or sender IDs like dots, special characters, or numbers," Scamwatch suggested.
How to protect yourself?
If you're targeted by an impersonation scam, just hang up, Scamwatch advises.
If you're unsure if the call is legitimate, avoid authorising bank transfers; giving out personal or financial information like passwords, security codes, PINs or tokens; and don't click on any links.
There are also a number of preventive measures you can take to avoid falling into a scam.
"Those who do fall victim to scams, particularly when there's financial fraud, normally there are many different things that have to go wrong. And unfortunately, they're often the low-hanging fruit," Hunt said.
"This is everything from using a password manager, having strong and unique passwords, having multi-factor authentication turned on, and even using some of those credit monitoring services so that you can actually get a notification, for example, if someone tries to take [your money] alone in your name."
Scamwatch suggests that — if you've fallen into a scam and have lost money — contact your bank or financial institution to report the fraud and ask them to stop any transaction, then change passwords on all your devices and online accounts.
If your personal information is stolen, contact IDCARE at 1800 595 160.
Once your details have been secured, you report the incident to Scamwatch to help protect others.
