- NAB experts share top tips to spot red flags of expected scam trends in 2025
- NAB customer losses down, but reports up as criminals find new ways to rip people off
NAB has identified AI-driven scams and new evolutions of cryptocurrency investment scams as key trends to watch out for in 2025, according to the bank’s experts.
NAB Executive, Group Investigations Chris Sheehan said the ‘scamscape’ was constantly evolving.
“We’ve identified five scams to watch based on trends we’re seeing, what we hear from customers and societal issues.”
“Every Australian needs to know about these scams so they can recognise the red flags and protect themselves and their loved ones in 2025,” Mr Sheehan, a former Australian Federal Police executive, said.
Click here to read an explainer about these scams, including the specifics of how they work
Mr Sheehan said there were common red flags among the different scams.
“Criminals create urgency to act quickly. It could be creating FOMO (fear of missing out) that resold concert tickets will go quickly, that’ll you miss the next big crypto investment opportunity or that there’s a problem with your bank account and you need to move your money elsewhere,” he said.
“Another common red flag across different scam types is that the contact is unexpected. For example, an out-of-the blue phone call from an ‘internet provider’ to fix your connection.
“Once funds are sent it’s often very hard to recover money, despite our best efforts. Criminals quickly send it to overseas accounts or to cryptocurrency platforms knowing it makes it harder to retrieve. That’s why we need all parts of the scam ecosystem taking action to stop the crime before it happens.”
Mr Sheehan said AI could be used in all different scam types.
“Criminals are using AI to create deep fake videos impersonating high profile Australians and create images used in sextortion,” he said.
“Three seconds of audio from a video or a voicemail or an image from social media is enough for criminals to get to work.”
The warning comes as NAB continues its fight against criminals as part of a bank-wide scam strategy.
“Customer scam losses decreased 20% year-on-year. That’s despite customer scam reports increasing 18% in the same period,” Mr Sheehan said.
“We can, and will, do more in 2025 to protect our customers and the community.
“Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve been scammed.”
Recent actions NAB has taken to reduce the impact of scams on customers include:
- Introducing payment alerts to the NAB App and Internet Banking to get customers to slow down and consider where they are a sending money.
- Removing links from text messages to make it easier for customers to identify legitimate messages.
- Joining BioCatch Trust Australia, a first of its kind inter-bank, intelligence-sharing network where members share information in real-time before a payment is made.
- Completed, or on track to complete, all seven initiatives in the ABA Scam-Safe Accord on time.
- Blocking some payments to high-risk cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Adding 100 people to the scams, fraud and investigations team so customers can speak to someone faster.
- Ongoing customer and community education via the Security Hub website, direct alerts (eg in the NAB app), emails, social media content and free monthly webinars.
