Research shows Australians are more scam-aware than 12 months ago as losses fall 

Research released today by Commonwealth Bank shows the majority of Australians are becoming more “scam-aware” than ever before, with more than eight in 10 people saying they are confident in their ability to recognise and avoid scams, including a quarter who say they are very confident.

Nearly three in four (73 per cent) Aussies say they have become more concerned about scams over the last 12 months – a 16 percent increase on the same figure released by CBA in October last year.

While the prevalence of scams continues to rise, the latest CommBank data reveals anti-scam initiatives announced by the bank over the past 12 months are making a real difference for customers.

According to CommBank data between January-June 2023, CommBank customer losses decreased more than a third (37 per cent) compared with those recorded from July-December 2022.

James Roberts, CBA’s General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services, said the results show good progress of a number of anti-scam initiatives released by the bank to help detect and prevent scams.

“It’s positive news that Aussies are growing more aware of scams and what they can do to stay safe,” said Mr Roberts.

“The increased awareness and decrease in the overall dollars lost by CommBank customers over the period is encouraging. However we all have more to do, including continuing to strengthen our defences across all financial institutions, telcos, government, social media and digital platforms to protect Australians from the terrible impact the scammers have. 

“At CommBank, a key priority is protecting customers from all types of scams.

“Our latest anti-scam initiatives, such as NameCheck and CallerCheck technologies, as well as our Crypto Holds and Declines, play a crucial role in safeguarding our customers. It’s great that the multiple initiatives we have put in place over the last year are having a positive impact that we can see in the numbers.

“We’re making progress, but there is always more to do. Remember to Stop, Check and Reject when sending money or banking details,” Mr Roberts said.

CommBank data reveals in the year ending 30 June 2023, the bank prevented and recovered more than $228 million of scam attempts against retail and business customers through our scams prevention and detection program.

CommBank’s anti-scam initiatives

• CommBank’s NameCheck technology gives customers making a first-time payment an indication of whether the account name and account details entered look right.
• CommBank’s CallerCheck technology gives customers a notification to their CommBank app to verify if a call is from the bank. From November 2022 to August 2023, CallerCheck was used by around 420,000 customers during outbound calls.
• CustomerCheck allows customers to verify their identity when visiting a branch through a security notification in the CommBank app. This ensures customers no longer need to reveal identifying information about themselves in an open branch environment. From May 2023 to August 2023, around 540,000 customers successfully responded “yes” to CustomerCheck in-branch.
• A new two-way push notification for third-party wallets launched last week, which notifies customers in their CommBank app if their card is being used to set up a third-party wallet such as Apple Pay. Customers are encouraged to update their CommBank app and turn on notifications to take advantage this new safety feature. 

For more information on protecting yourself from scams and fraud, visit: commbank.com.au/scams

Additional findings of the scams survey are below:

• Results revealed Aussies are most cautious about answering calls from numbers they don’t recognise (68 per cent, up slightly from 65 per cent in 2022), clicking on links they receive via text message unless from their friends (61 per cent, higher than 57 per cent in 2022) and checking written material such as texts and emails for spelling and grammar mistakes that could indicate a scam (58 per cent, up from 54 per cent in 2022).
• Three in four (76 per cent) are becoming more cautious about communicating with anyone as it could turn out to be AI
• Three in four (74 per cent) agree AI is making it harder to recognise scams and avoid them.
• Nine in 10 (90 per cent) of Aussies agree that the best approach to fighting scams is a whole-of-ecosystem approach where banks, telcos, social media platforms, governments and police work together to tackle the problem, including 62 per cent who strongly agree. 

Important information

This study was conducted online by YouGov between 14-21 August 2023 using a nationally representative sample of 2,047 people aged 18+ across Australia. Age, gender and region quotas were applied to the sample. Results were post-weighted by age, gender and region to reflect the latest ABS population estimates.

References to 2022 results refer to the study conducted online by YouGov that ran between 12^th-14^thSeptember 2022 through which, where applicable, the same questions were asked to a sample comprising of a nationally representative sample of 1,030 Australians aged 18 years and older, where results were also post-weighted by age, gender and region to reflect the latest ABS population estimates. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.

¹CommBank Data FY23

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