Westpac moves to block 94,000 numbers in bid to block scams
The banking major will block others using its 94,000 phone numbers in a bid to stamp out scammers cloning its identity to target victims.
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Westpac has moved to place blocks on repeat victims of scammers as a rising number of customers are seeing calls from criminals calling under cloned bank phone numbers.
The bank, led by Peter King, warned it was seeing a worrying number of customers receiving calls from scammers, often masquerading as members of the bank or another financial institution.
Westpac said it was working with Optus, its telecommunications provider, to place “do not originate” blocks on almost 94,000 numbers associated with Westpac, in a bid to stamp out the false scam calls.
This block is aimed at preventing scammers spoofing Westpac’s numbers.
Westpac general manager of financial crime and fraud prevention Chris Wittingham said the bank noticed the trend in recent months.
He said previously the bank would see scammers pretending to be from the bank, but those criminals had stepped up their efforts and were now cloning Westpac numbers.
“We see them coming from all across the globe, there’s large numbers that have English accents, so we know the UK is a very large centre point for scams,” he said.
Mr Whittingham said risk factors the bank looked at could be repeat transactions into cryptocurrency investments, or unusual transactions.
He said Westpac would place tough transaction controls on repeat scam victims.
“We could for example block your ability to make electronic payments,” he said.
“You could go into a branch and the branch will ask you for additional information or requests you may need to provide documents to make payments to be made.”
However, scam victims are not guaranteed their money back.
Westpac said it would attempt to recover funds, but if they couldn’t be returned then the bank’s scam squad would look at reimbursement on individual facts and a case-by-case basis.
Mr Wittingham said blocking the constellation of ways scammers attempted to target customers was challenging, with criminals using texts purporting to be from the bank, calls, or emails.
“Scams are very challenging, there’s sometimes often very emotive ownership with the potential victim who decided to make the transaction,” he said.
Westpac’s head of fraud Ben Young said other data breaches were making it easier for scammers to target their victims.
“The scammer will then use personal information they’ve fraudulently obtained, like quoting the customer’s name or last few digits of their credit card, to convince them the call is genuine,” he said.
“It’s not only banks scammers are impersonating. We are seeing a variety of cases where scammers appear to be calling from telco or energy providers, online retailers, government organisations, or even pretending to be family members.”
Originally published as Westpac moves to block 94,000 numbers in bid to block scams
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