National Australia Bank (NAB) has helped its customers avoid sending A$48.5 million in potentially fraudulent payments over the past two months through its scam warning system. The bank’s alerts notify users when a payment appears unusual or raises concerns, encouraging them to stop and verify before proceeding.
In December alone, during the Christmas shopping period and Boxing Day sales, NAB customers abandoned A$26 million worth of payments after receiving scam alerts. This followed A$22.5 million in stopped payments in November, a month known for its Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping spikes.
Chris Sheehan, NAB’s group investigations executive, highlighted the importance of these warnings, explaining that banks have no insight into scammers’ interactions with victims until a payment is initiated. “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,” he said.
With scam attempts increasing, NAB has ramped up its anti-fraud efforts. The bank has removed links from text messages to prevent phishing attempts, strengthened its investigations team, and joined a fraud and scams intelligence-sharing network. Additionally, NAB is leveraging behavioural- and device-based security technology from BioCatch to enhance fraud detection.
As online scams continue to rise, NAB’s proactive measures are proving effective in protecting customers from financial loss, reinforcing the importance of banking security innovations.