Commonwealth Bank’s move to protect digital wallets as scams cost Aussies $208m

Commonwealth Bank is rolling out a new feature for customers, focusing on an app used by millions of Aussies every day.

Ahead of a busy shopping period, Commonwealth Bank says it will allow customers to be better equipped to deal with scam messages by allowing them to see all digital wallets their payment details have been linked to and remove any they don’t recognise.

Commonwealth Bank general manager of group fraud, James Roberts said the new security features are aimed at stopping one of the most common kinds of scams, known as phishing. Phishing is a way cyber criminals trick you into giving them personal information.

“Criminals regularly ‘phish’ for personal information, by texting customers a link that points to a dodgy website,” Mr Roberts said.

CBA launches a new security feature that allows customers to delete fraudulent devices. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“This can lead to customers then sharing personal banking information, such as card details, bank authorisation codes and digital banking credentials. These details may enable scammers to add card details to a digital wallet on the scammer’s mobile device.”

As part of these scams, customers can be tricked into sharing personal banking details, including one time security codes that can allow the scammer to link the customer card to a digital wallet.

In response, Commonwealth Bank encourages customers to check who has access to their digital wallet and remove any unknown devices.

The call comes as a reported $208m has been lost to 198,000 scams in 2024, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC).

According to the NASC, phishing scams alone cost Australians $12m.

Mr Roberts said the bank’s new features will help strengthen the country’s defences against cyber crime by letting 7 million Aussies use the security features to help stay in control of their digital wallets.

“These extra security measures are designed to help disrupt scams and fraud, and ultimately make Australia less attractive to scammers,” he said.

The Bank has also introduced new interactive in-app security warnings to help protect customers when they are about to pay someone for the first time who could potentially be a scammer.

Commonwealth Bank’s new feature comes as Australians lose more than $200m to scams. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

“We encourage customers to remain vigilant and ‘Stop, Check and Reject’ suspicious calls, emails or texts,” Mr Roberts said.

“We know that from the pilot these messages really helped customers to pause and think about payments, and in some instances they took further steps to confirm they were not being scammed. This is exactly the behaviour we are looking to support, and we did see payments abandoned which could have saved customers from scams.”

Another security feature the bank is looking to implement is a QR Cardless will replace Cardless Cash, Cardless Deposit and ATM Deposit Code.

This gives consumers and businesses increased deposit limits up to $10,000 via the CommBank app, removing the need to use plastic cards at the ATM.

Over the past financial year, CommBank invested $800 million to help protect customers by combating cyber crime, fraud and scams.