NAB’s Chris Sheehan on why Australia’s comprehensive, preventive approach to tackling scams is more sophisticated and more effective than any other country.
Australia is a world leader responding to the scams epidemic, a fact recognised by other countries who are envious of what we are achieving and eager to learn from our experience.
That’s my key conclusion from two recent trips to London, where I met with representatives of major UK banks, government, regulators and industry associations and attended the Global Anti-Scam Summit with colleagues from the Australian Banking Association (ABA) and the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX).
A UK-style model isn’t stopping scams at the source, actually
The iconic movie Love Actually described Britain as the country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham’s right foot. David Beckham’s left foot.
It’s also known for its mandatory scam reimbursement system. Under laws that came into effect in October 2024, banks must reimburse customers who lose money to scams within five days.
This approach is often described as ‘world-leading’. But prevention is better than a cure. The UK model is focused on treating the financial symptoms of scams rather than seeking to stop them at their source. It does nothing to hold telecommunications or digital technology firms to account after a victim is hooked into a scam in the first place.
The Australian Scams Prevention Framework law, which passed Parliament in February, goes much further and will provide far greater coverage for consumers. It will capture more organisations and more payment types.
Critically, it focuses on prevention, and this is where Australia is truly leading the world.
We want to hit the source and symptoms of scams simultaneously, to make it much less likely that Australian citizens will be victimised in the first place. The UK is now trying to expand its regime to cover more sectors but they’ve made little progress and it’s possible the opportunity has been missed.
Australian banks are more advanced in data sharing and using real-time capabilities to block suspected scam payments.
The ABA Scam-Safe Accord includes a commitment to intelligence sharing through the AFCX.
Partnerships like BioCatch Trust Australia are world-class, cutting-edge examples of practical, customer-focused scam protection. The UK’s focus on treating the symptoms rather than the cause of scams means many of these collaborative opportunities to stop the crime occurring in the first place are currently non-existent right now.
While overseas, I also got to hear more about emerging trends and two key themes stood out.
Growing concern about money mules
High school kids being recruited by criminal gangs to be money mules are a serious and rapidly growing problem in the UK. As evidence of this Britain has developed a national strategy, including a 22-point plan and specific funding to help teens caught in the mule trap.
Part of popular culture through Netflix shows Ozark and Narcos, mules are people who transfer money, either knowingly or unwittingly, for others. Money mules are money launderers. They are committing serious crime, providing material support to organised crime and exposing themselves to very serious criminal penalties.
Read more on money mules here: What is a money mule? – NAB News.
The AFP recently warned uni students about side hustles that could see them become money mules. While Australia hasn’t seen high school kids being recruited as mules at the same scale as the UK, it would be bold to suggest it can’t or won’t happen here.
When notified about a mule account, NAB immediately investigates and acts to stop the muling activity.
We report mule accounts in line with our financial crime obligations and invest in robust detection and prevention systems to help protect customers.
Phone snatching and shoulder surfing
Blue signs have been painted on London streets to warn where phone snatching hot spots are.
Shoulder surfing is a common tactic, particularly on public transport and in tourist hot spots. As captured in many a TikTok video, criminals watch over a person’s shoulder as they use their phone, to get the PIN code before snatching the device.
Phone snatching is happening at an “industrial-scale” and £50m-a-year problem in London and surrounds, according to the Metropolitan Police. A recent week-long crackdown saw 230 people arrested and more than 1,000 phones seized.
Crooks know phones are a golden ticket to our lives. Shoulder surfing allows them to change passwords to lock people out of their accounts, including moving money and stealing personal info.
Pleasingly, we aren’t aware of any NAB customers impacted by this trend to date.
But prevention is better than cure. It takes five minutes to set up two-factor authentication on your phone. We also apply this type of authentication to aspects of the NAB banking app for example moving money to a new account.
Check out the the practical guide from our Group Security team about this extra layer of protection here The benefits of Multi-Factor Authentication – NAB.
Chris Sheehan leads NAB’s Group Investigations portfolio. In his role, Chris leads NAB’s scam strategy and strategic fraud change program. Before joining NAB, Chris was a senior executive with the AFP with 28 years of international and domestic law enforcement experience in national security, organised crime and crisis management. This article first appeared on his LinkedIn.
