The majority of Australians are now more “scam aware” than ever before, with more than eight in 10 people feeling confident in their ability to detect and avoid scams, new Commonwealth Bank research has shown.
CBA survey findings showed that Australians are more concerned about scams than they were 12 months ago, up 16% in October last year to 73%.
They are also slightly more cautious about answering calls from numbers they don’t recognise (68% vs 65% in 2022), clicking on links they receive via text messages (61% vs. 57% in 2022) and checking texts and emails for spelling and grammar mistakes that could indicate a scam (58% vs 54% in 2022).
Scams using AI are also a concern for many Australians, with 76% becoming more cautious about communicating with anyone as it could turn out to be AI, and 74% agreeing AI is making it harder to recognise scams and avoid them.
But to really put an end to scams, it is still best to take on a whole-of-ecosystem approach where banks, telcos, social media platforms, governments, and police work together to tackle the problem, according to 90% of survey respondents.
The latest CommBank data, meanwhile, revealed that the bank’s anti-scam initiatives announced over the past 12 months, including NameCheck, CallerCheck technologies, and Crypto Holds and Declines, are making great progress in detecting and preventing scams.
CommBank data between January-June showed CommBank customer losses were down by 37% compared with those recorded from July-December last year.
“It’s positive news that Aussies are growing more aware of scams and what they can do to stay safe,” said James Roberts (pictured above), CBA’s general manager of group fraud management services, in a media release. “The increased awareness and decrease in the overall dollars lost by CommBank customers over the period is encouraging.
“However, we all have more to do, including continuing to strengthen our defences across all financial institutions, telcos, government, social media and digital platforms to protect Australians from the terrible impact the scammers have.”
Despite the progress made by the bank, Roberts said “there is always more to do.”
“Remember to stop, check, and reject when sending money or banking details,” he said.
In the year to June, CommBank prevented and recovered more than $228 million of scam attempts against retail and business customers through its scam prevention and detection program, the bank’s latest data showed.
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