Scammers are upping the ante to impersonate banks and trick victims out of thousands of dollars that could be their life savings.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found scammers are becoming trickier by using new technology to make a call appear to come from a bank's legitimate phone number or send a text to appear in the same thread as bank messages.
Last year, more than 14,000 reports were made about bank impersonation scams.
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More than $20 million was lost to these types of scams.
In the bigger picture, scammers are impacting Australians across the board – not just bank impersonation scams – with more than $169 million lost in total to different types of ploys.
But impersonation scams are on the rise.
These frauds can pretend to be one of the big four banks and other financial institutions.
The modus operandi used by these scammers usually entails a sense of urgency where they play on fraudulent or suspicious activity to a person's bank account.
Other signs to look out for are texts with warnings such as "your bank account has been accessed", "your bank account has been locked", or "a payment has been made from your account. If this was not you, please call (phone number)".
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The rise of bank impersonation scams has authorities concerned as they can empty a victim's entire bank account.
"We are incredibly concerned about bank impersonation scams because they can be so convincing, they are very hard to detect," ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe 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."
Lowe said the ACCC saw the case of a man who lost over $500,000 after being called by someone claiming to be from a major bank's security department to authorise a payment.
Another case was when a man lost $38,000 after receiving a text regarding a suspicious transaction in his bank account.
"The scam text appeared in the same conversation thread as legitimate messages from his bank," Lowe said.
"He called the number in the text and was put through to a member of the bank's fraud team.
"Unfortunately, it was an elaborate scam and he lost everything."
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Lowe has called on all Australians to remember no matter how urgent these calls or texts may seem, a bank will never ask you to transfer funds.
Her tips to avoid falling prey to these scams include:
- If you receive an SMS or phone number to call, don't use it -instead call your bank directly
- Hang up if you get a call from someone claiming to be your bank and asking you to transfer funds
- Always ask for a reference number and call your bank back on details you find independently
- Never provide online banking passwords, one-time security codes, pins or tokens over the phone
- Never click on links in text messages
- Contact your bank immediately if you think you've been scammed
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