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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra announced the new tool designed to protect customers from phone scams.
Currently in the proof-of-concept stage, the Scam Indicator is set to be piloted over the next few months in order to protect joint Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Telstra customers from phone scams in which scammers will try and deceive people into transferring large amounts of money.
The Scam Indicator is designed to spot certain high-risk scam situations in real time utilising a Telstra API (application programming interface) that CBA will use as part of the scam detection process.
This will allow the major bank to check if a customer is on a phone call, which is a prime indicator that a scam is taking place and will give CBA the opportunity to contact the customer or put in additional checks.
CBA will only have access to specific data points relating to scam prevention through Telstra’s API and does not have access to any other underlying customer data.
Reportedly, early results of simulations suggested the prospect of improvements in the detection and prevention of scams that could mitigate customer losses of up to $15–$20 million.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn said the major bank and Telstra are “committed to helping customers protect themselves from the financial losses and emotional trauma associated with scams”.
“We are focused on helping customers stay safe by improving early detection and prevention of scams,” Mr Comyn said.
“We have been working with Telstra to produce a machine-learning scams detection model, the first in a number of exciting initiatives from this partnership.”
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) welcomed the partnership between CBA and Telstra.
AFCA’s CEO and chief ombudsman David Locke said they are pleased to see telecommunications providers and financial firms co-operating to detect or prevent scams.
“The widespread and sophisticated nature of scams means the industry needs to be willing to invest in new technology and have the ability to respond quickly,” Mr Locke added.
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“We continue to see large increases in the number and size of scams coming to AFCA — a sign that more needs to be done.
“At AFCA, we see the devastating impact scams have on people, so we welcome any steps firms can take to protect consumers. We urge all banks and telcos to contribute to this important work.”
This news follows the recent cyber attack on non-bank lender Latitude Financial Group that resulted in approximately 7.9 million driver’s licence numbers and 53,000 passport numbers being stolen from Latitude’s customers.
[RELATED: Non-bank goes offline following ‘large scale information theft’]
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