Young Australians are the least concerned about falling victim to a scam or cyber attack and believe they know how to safeguard themselves despite being among the most likely to experience one, new NAB insights have revealed.
A new NAB Economics report revealed that one in five Australians fallen victim to scams or cyber attacks, with the average loss being $569, while three in 10 businesses had been impacted by cyber crime or a data breach, with their average loss nearly $20,000.
The data comes as the bank launched a new education and awareness campaign to help Australians “See Through Scams.”
Chris Sheehan, NAB executive group investigations and fraud, said criminals have been using the internet and telecommunications networks as a digital front door to commit scams and fraud.
“Scammers are robbing Australians blind of their hard-earned money every day, and we need to stop the crime before it happens,” said Sheehan, who is a former Australian Federal Police senior executive.
“Scams often happen when people are rushing, tired, or distracted. We want to help people see scams differently and highlight the moment where split-second decisions are made, which, as our research shows, can have devastating financial and emotional consequences.
“Educating yourself and the people around you – friends, family, and colleagues – to see through scams is critical, particularly in today’s digital world. No one wants their money to end up in the hands of criminals. Contact your bank immediately if you’ve been scammed – we’re here to help.”
As part of the campaign, NAB Economics commissioned research that asked consumers and businesses about their experience of cyber crime and scams, the impacts, and how they were protecting themselves.
A mere 16% of men aged 18 to 29 said they were concerned about them or someone they lived with falling victim to a cyber attack or scam. But twice as many (34%) of that grouping had experienced one. One in two young men reported having good or very good knowledge of cybersecurity.
Meanwhile, roughly 18% of women aged 18 to 29 said they were concerned about a cyber attack or scam, while 38% had been the victim of one. A third of young women reported having good or very good cyber safety awareness.
Sheehan called for a “Team Australia” approach across business sectors, governments, and the community to lower the impact of the growing global problem.
“NAB has more than 60 projects underway across the bank to help address the impacts of scams and fraud,” he said. “Making it harder for criminals to infiltrate bank phone numbers and text message threads and introducing protective prompts to digital banking so customers can identify potential scams are among some of the recent initiatives.
“We’ve also added 50 people to the scams and fraud team since October so customers can speak to someone faster.
“We will always make every attempt to prevent scams and recover funds where possible. However, once the funds have left a victim’s account, it can often be difficult to recover them due to the sophistication and speed of these criminals.”
NAB runs free monthly security webinars, with the next session coming up on May 1 at 5:30pm for individuals and May 2 at 12pm for businesses. To sign up, visit. nab.com.au/security.
Visit NAB’s security hub website for more information about the latest scams, advice, and education.
Use the comment section below to tell us how you felt about this.
