Westpac accuses Meta of fuelling scams as criminals buy bank accounts on Facebook
Westpac has revealed how scammers are buying Aussies’ bank accounts through Facebook to hide their criminal activities.
Scammers are hiding their illegal activities by purchasing Australian bank accounts listed in ads on Meta’s ecommerce platform Facebook Marketplace.
Westpac head of fraud prevention Ben Young told this masthead that some victims were lured into giving up their bank accounts through romance scams while others chose to sell their accounts online on social media platforms.
“For whatever reason, they don’t need the bank account anymore, or they’ve fallen on hard times, maybe they’re leaving the country, and so they simply sell this account as they go,” Mr Young said.
“Which is possible, but it just is hugely facilitated by these sorts of groups that sort of allow this sort of open marketplace for buying and selling bank accounts.”
Mr Young said the practice of buying or renting someone’s bank account, called muling, allowed criminals to hide their identities and activities online.
“Let’s say you’re the scammer and you’ve purchased someone else’s bank account,” he said.
“Then the money will trace to that other person as opposed to you.”
More than half of scams detected by big four bank Westpac originated on digital platforms with 17 per cent from social media alone.
Mr Young’s comments come after Westpac chief executive officer Anthony Miller on Tuesday attacked Meta for making a reported $16 billion in revenue off ads promoting scams on its social media platforms.
“Meta made $16 billion in ad revenue globally as a a result of ads for what were effectively just scams,” he told a parliamentary Economics Committee.
Mr Miller was apparently referring to a recent news report by Reuters which said Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue – or $US16bn ($25bn) – from running advertising for scams and banned goods.
Mr Miller also told the hearing that Westpac’s Safer Pay program had prevented its customers from losing up to $690 million on social-media based scams by challenging them to ensure a payment recipient is not a con.
Mr Young said investment hoaxes remained the “number one scam in town” and that fraudsters were increasingly using artificial intelligence to ensnare unwitting victims.
“I just think it’s a real tip we try to give for people just to talk to particularly elderly Australians, but make sure you understand what the state of play is of AI,” he said.
“You just can’t trust these photos or videos, or even voice these days, because it can be so easily impersonated.”
A Meta spokesman said the 10 per cent figure in the Reuters story was an “overly-inclusive estimate” and a “subsequent review revealed that many of these ads weren’t violating”.
Victim recalls masseur sex assault horror
