Commonwealth Bank and NSW Police target abusers harassing victims via transaction references

An Australian bank has joined police to catch out predators who are sneakily using deposits as small as 1c to terrorise their victims. SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING

In a world first, one of Australia’s biggest banks has joined police in the battle to catch out predators who are sneakily using banking transactions to terrorise their partners and ex-partners.

Believing they can get around court orders and AVOs to refrain from contacting the protected person, these offenders are using transactions to not only contact but to intimidate and harass with menacing messages — under the guise of depositing money.

Some transactions are as small as one cent, with messages left in the “reference”.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has taken a strong stance, teaming up with NSW Police for a pilot program to identify abuse and then, when necessary and with the approval of the victim, involve police.

Head of Customer Vulnerability Caroline Wall said the bank discovered an issue back in 2019 when one customer sought help.

Domestic violence offenders are intimidating their victims by sending threatening messages via bank deposits. Picture: iStock

“She came to our specialist team and we saw in her bank statements pages and pages of one cent transitions with really abusive messages,” Ms Wall told The Sunday Telegraph.

“We went to work to see if this was a one-off or if there is a more insidious pattern. Within three months we discovered there were 8000 customers who received low-value deposits for the purpose of delivering messages.”

Commonwealth Bank Head of Customer Vulnerability Caroline Wall. Picture: LinkedIn

Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh. Picture: Jane Dempster

Ms Wall said the CommBank immediately changed its terms and conditions to alert customers that the unacceptable behaviour would be called out.

Next, they put a block on online banking for any electronic transactions that uses profanities and a warning is delivered to the person trying to make the transaction.

“The problem we found was that the most insidious forms of abuse didn’t come from any profanity, it was messages that were very nuanced to the victim survivor,” she said.

“Things like ‘I know your new address’ or ‘unblock me or I’m showing up at your house’.”

“You can’t identify those individual words, so we built an AI model that looks at a range of things such as customers behaviour, the intent of language, the volume of transactions.”

The system then manually “spits out high-risk cases” — those that contain words that are controlling, or that threaten harm and self-harm.

A specialist team then reviews the case, and contacts the customer to make sure they are safe.

The bank considers a range of options — including sending warning letters to abusers, limiting their access to digital banking and, in cases where necessary, alerting NSW Police.

The pilot means CommBank can report the abusive message to police, with the approval of the victim.

Ms Wall said the CommBank was excited to be working closely with NSW Police and playing a part in stopping this insidious form of coercive control.

It’s one of the bank’s many programs to tackle broader “economic abuse” that includes behaviour like restricting a spouse’s access to money, tracking their spending, and forcing people to take out debt.

Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh praised the trial.

“I congratulate CBA and the NSW Police on this collaborative partnership which means critical information can now be shared when financial transactions are being used to threaten, harass or intimidate victims of domestic violence,” the former Queensland premier said.

“This trial will provide valuable insights for police services and other banks about how to better combat the scourge of domestic violence.”

BLOCKED, SO HE USED BANKING

A Sydney man has fronted court accused of using bank transactions to send more than 300 unwanted messages to his victim after he was blocked from all other forms of communication.

Police say the case of transactional abuse — the first of its kind to be prosecuted in NSW — was a frightening example of how far domestic violence offenders would go to contact and harass their victims.

Lafta Ram outside Downing Centre courts.

Police charged 32-year-old Lafta Ram — the subject of an AVO to prevent him from contacting his victim — after viewing about 300 messages.

They came in the “reference” section of the transactions when he sent unwanted cash deposits to the woman — amounts as low as 1c, 2c or $1

The messages included “You’re gonna regret it”, “You will hate my next move”, “Stop blocking me you f…k, “Don’t punish me”, “Dont ignore me,” “Unblock me”.

Detective Inspector Michelle Ritchie said police were contacted after suspicious activity was detected and reported by the bank.

Investigations revealed Ram had an AVO against him and was not allowed to contact the victim.

“She had blocked him from phone calls, WhatsApp, all other forms of social media, so then he started messaging her through her bank,” said Det-Insp Ritchie, who is manager of the South West Metropolitan Region Domestic Violence High Risk Offenders Team.

“He started depositing small amounts of money in her account and then in the reference section he would send her the abusive and threatening messages.”

Ram was convicted in Liverpool Local Court in June of five counts of breaching an AVO and one count of stalking and intimidation.

Magistrate McRobert sentenced him to a 12-month community corrections order and fined him $1000.

He has lodged an all-grounds appeal to be heard in the NSW District Court next month.

Det-Insp Ritchie said the case was an example of DV offenders becoming more tech savvy in contacting their victims.

“They are also tracking victims through phones, putting tracking devices on cars, getting access to their email accounts, finding out where appointments are, and now we are seeing more and more of this messaging through banking transactions.

“These types of controlling behaviour and abuse are frightening for victims of domestic and family violence and will be considered forms of coercive control.”.

She said police were willing and able to prosecute but could not tackle the problem on their own.

“It is our concern that this type of offending will be a giant can of worms and we need to determine whether the behaviour is in fact widespread.

“We need to collaborate with banking and financial institutions to work together to try to reduce domestic violence offences.

“This is just another insidious way of offenders trying to control their victims.”

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