- December the biggest month in 2024 for abandoned payments
- Real-time payment alerts in NAB App and Internet Banking help raise scam warning
- Customer scam losses down, but reports up as criminals find new ways to rip people off
NAB customers abandoned $48.5 million worth of payments in the past two months alone after the bank raised a scam warning about them, new insights reveal.
December was the biggest month in 2024 for abandoned payments, with customers scrapping $26 million worth of payments after receiving a payment alert.
About $22.5 million in payments were abandoned in November, known for its Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
The real-time alerts target invoice, investment, romance, and goods and services scams in the NAB App and Internet Banking as customers are making a payment.
Customers may receive an alert if a payment appears out of character for them or raises scam concerns and are designed to encourage them to stop and check before they send money.
NAB Executive, Group Investigations Chris Sheehan said the alerts were helping reduce the impact of scams on customers.
“December is a busy time of year with Christmas, the Boxing Day sales and summer holidays. That means it’s also a busy time of year for criminals who know people are busy and often distracted,” Mr Sheehan, a former Australian Federal Police executive, said.
“Even though it’s a time of year when criminals are particularly active, we’ve helped customers identify suspected scams through these alerts.”
Mr Sheehan said the common scam types the alerts targeted started outside the NAB app and Internet Banking.
“Banks have no visibility to a criminal’s interactions with someone via a text message, a phone call, social media messages or a dodgy website until someone attempts to transfer money or make a payment.
“These alerts are designed to pick-up any unusual indicators from a customer and trigger them to stop and pause before they hit send on any money because once that transfer is made it’s really hard to get it back.
“We continue to invest in protections to help customers and we need all parts of the scam ecosystem contributing to the cause if we are to make Australia a much harder place for these criminals to be successful.
“Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve been scammed.”
Notes to editors
Real-time payment alerts
- Payment alerts were first introduced to the NAB app and Internet Banking in March 2023.
Recent actions NAB has taken to reduce the impact of scams on customers include:
- 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.
