CommBank, Telstra enhance scam prevention system for seniors

Older Australians are scammed more and lose more money than others, but new technology is delivering an extra defence layer.

Scammers target seniors more than other age groups. Picture: iStock

The nation’s most vulnerable group of scam victims, senior Australians, is getting an extra layer of protection against criminals who target them via their landlines.

The Commonwealth Bank and Telstra are expanding their Australian-first scam detection technology that helps detect scam phone calls in real time and already has saved people millions of dollars.

Launched in October 2023 for mobile phones, the Scam Indicator technology uses AI, data science and other elements to help protect joint customers of CommBank and Telstra, and has now been expanded to include landlines, which are more widely used by seniors.

Telstra data shows more than 85 per cent of residential landlines are registered to Australians aged over 60, while separate figures from the National Anti-Scam Centre reveal over-65s lost more money to scammers last year than any other age group, and also made the most scam reports in the first quarter of 2024.

CommBank general manager of group fraud James Roberts said seniors were “sadly” at most risk of being scammed.

“When we look at the ACCC’s scam data, we see that in 2023 they were the only age group cohort of customers in Australia that didn’t experience a decrease in scams,” he said.

“Aussies over 65 only make up 16 per cent of the population but they experienced just under 30 per cent of the reported scam losses, so they’re definitely being targeted.”

Mr Roberts said there were three core reasons why seniors were hit more.

“I think they were born into a more honest and trusting society,” he said.

“They have often got quite high accrued assets, so when they do get scammed the average value tends to be higher, and lastly the scammers are using technology, and unfortunately older Australians are often less familiar with technology and can be deceived.”

Quantium Telstra CEO Sandy Cameron said on the first day of the new landline operation, “we had three customers over 65, who had similar amounts of savings, were specifically saved.”

“The product has become 25 per cent more powerful, in a demographic and cohort that is particularly susceptible, so we are quite excited and think we are going to see a lot of vulnerable customers protected,” he said.

The system sends real-time alerts to impacted customers while they are still on the phone to a scammer – often a long phone call – and helps stop scams before they are committed.

A recent $70,000 scam attempt on an elderly customer was prevented despite the criminals gaining access to her computer and banking information. The Scam Indicator system monitored her activity, the suspicious transactions were stopped and no money left her account.

“I think it works because of the real time nature, because it’s at scale, and because both Telstra and CBA have collaborated in ways that aren’t very common,” Mr Cameron said.

He said scam prevention was “a team sport” in “a very fast-moving environment”.

James Roberts, general manager of group fraud at The Commonwealth Bank.

Quantium Telstra and CommBank hope other banks, telcos and industries will work together on saving people from scammers.

CommBank’s Mr Roberts said Australia could effectively produce a national asset that would defend people from scammers better than other countries.

“This is a demonstration of when larger players work well together, what can be achieved at a national level,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of landlines are still used across Australia, although mobile phones dominate telecommunications, with Telstra alone operating 26 million mobile services.

Originally published as CommBank, Telstra enhance scam prevention system for seniors