ACCC warns sophisticated scammers are calling from numbers that appear to be from banks

Last year, Scamwatch had 14,603 reports about bank impersonation scams, totalling more than $20 million in losses.

In one case a victim was tricked into handing over up to $500,000, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Scammers are convincing victims they are representatives of banks by making their calls appear like they are coming from a bank's legitimate phone number, or by sending a text that appears in the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages.

The caller will then panic the victim by saying their accounts are at risk and they urgently need to transfer funds to a different account.

They may appear professional and confident and will ask to identify you using bank procedures which appear legitimate.

ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said bank impersonation scams are increasingly sophisticated.

"We are incredibly concerned about bank impersonation scams because they can be so convincing, they are very hard to detect," she said.

"What's equally worrying about this particular scam, is that it is emptying every last cent out of victims' savings accounts, with losses averaging $22,000 and more than 90 reports of losses between $40,000 and $800,000. This causes both financial and emotional devastation."

The calls or messages impersonate the big four banks, as well as other financial institutions.

Total losses to phone and text scams increased significantly in 2022 with over $169 million lost, according to Scamwatch.

Ms Lowe said she was aware of one case where a man lost $38,000 after receiving a scam text message about a suspicious transaction. The scam text appeared in the same conversation thread as legitimate messages from his bank.

It was a scam, and the man lost everything.

University of NSW Institute for Cyber Security deputy director Rob Nicholls told ACM that opportunistic criminals find scams a relatively easy way to steal money.

"The major issue is that actually doing a scam doesn't require that much effort, and the risk of being caught is relatively low," Professor Nicholls said.

"So it's terrible to say, but if I'm a criminal doing a cost benefit analysis, I can try and break into somebody's home or steal a car, but I can get away with much more if I do something remotely, and there's no chance of being caught physically in the act."

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The Australian Cyber Security Centre's Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2022 estimated that a cybercrime is reported every seven minutes with fraud, online shopping and online banking reported as the top types of cybercrimes.

The same report found a 14 per cent rise in the average cost per cybercrime to over $39,000 for small business, $88,000 for medium business, and over $62,000 for large business.

Professor Nicholls said the typical individual victim of a cybercrime is likely to be older.

"It tends to skew older, and that's because people who are a bit older are more likely to have money that can be scammed. So, why try and scam younger people when they haven't got that much money to lose, whereas older people potentially do have more money to lose," he said.

"It is critical to remember that no matter how legitimate the call or message seems, a bank won't ask you to urgently transfer funds," Ms Lowe of the ACCC said.

"If you receive an SMS with a telephone number to call, do not use it. Instead, call your bank direct on a number you have sourced yourself.

The ACCC says you should never provide online banking passwords, one-time security codes, pins or tokens to anyone over the phone.

They said if a caller is encouraging you to transfer money to a different account for safekeeping, this is a sign you are being scammed. This is not standard procedure for a bank.