Ubank’s Chief Product Officer, Andrew Morrison, has provided his top tips on staying alert and scam-savvy this holiday season.
For many of us at this time of year, the focus has shifted to holiday gift-giving, finalizing travel plans, and managing money coming in and out of our bank accounts. This activity also means it’s prime time “for scammers to take advantage,” the Ubank team noted.
While scams are a year-round problem, statistics tell us “that opportunistic criminals seize the chance to exploit us this time of year.”
Ubank also mentioned that they “don’t discriminate; Australians of every age, gender, and demographic are being flooded with scam lures via text messages, phone calls, emails, social media, and gaming platforms.”
At Ubank, many of their customers “are between 18 to 35 years old.” Even the more digitally savvy generations “are seeing and experiencing contact from, and unfortunately falling victim to, scammers on these various channels.”
According to the ACCC, $3.1 billion was “the amount Australians lost to scammers in 2022, up from around $1.8 billion in 2021. Further, 70 percent of Scamwatch reports were impersonation scams with criminals posing as a bank, government agency, well-known organisations or individuals.”
Ubank says they are also “seeing scammers become more sophisticated.”
Some popular holiday period scams reportedly “include online shopping scams, flights and accommodation travel scams, and parcel delivery scams.”
Banks like ubank have “a crucial role in helping customers bank as safely as possible.”
They are investing heavily “to combat fraud and scams and will continue to.”
Ubank, like their parent company NAB, has “stopped the use of links in unexpected texts to customers in an industry first to reduce the impact of scams.”
That’s why they’re ensuring their customers “know that if they get an unexpected text message claiming to be from ubank, do not click on it; it’s likely a scam.”
Cryptocurrency scams are one of “the fastest-growing threats they see impacting customers, with Australians losing more than $221 million to these scams in 2022.”
Customers who use these payment methods currently “face a significantly higher risk of being scammed.” This is why ubank is restricting transactions “made to certain cryptocurrency exchanges to protect our customers from these scams.”
They’ve strengthened the support from their Contact Centre, “including a dedicated fraud line.
Their average call wait times “are only a few minutes.”
So, if customers get a suspicious call from someone “claiming to be ubank, hang up and call our official phone number on our website.”
They’ve also enhanced their app and digital functionality.
For example, they “use biometric technology and one-time passcodes.”
The ubank app also has “ways customers can beef up security, stay alert to changes and activity, and be scam season ready.”
For example:
A gentle nudge: They’re encouraging customers to “enable push notifications to keep them alert to changes, transactions, and give them optional prompts to help them spend and save smarter.”
A trusty new alert: Customers can “choose for their ubank account to trust their usual devices or browsers for a smoother login experience. But when a new device or browser is trusted, they send their customers an alert to make sure they are notified immediately, to ensure there’s no unwanted guests.”
The safer Pay: PayID lets customers “link their email or mobile number to one of their ubank Spend or Save accounts, so they can be paid using details their friends and family already know. With PayID, people know it’s them they’re sending money to, making it a smoother and more secure way of making transactions.”
Content warning: They’re seeing scammers “become more and more sophisticated, and that’s why we’re educating customers on the channels they’re on like TikTok and Instagram.”
They’re the most followed bank on social media, and their educational and ongoing “scam school” series has had “more than 2.5 million views to-date.”
For more details, check here.