CBA and Telstra expand ‘Scam Indicator’ tool to landlines

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra have expanded its ‘Scam Indicator’ capabilities to include landlines. 

The feature developed by Quantium Telstra was first designed in 2023 to help detect and prevent phone scams via mobile phone calls.

On Wednesday, the Telstra, CommBank and Quantium Telstra announced the service now covers landlines to boost protection against cyber criminals.

The technology is able to indicate whether a customer may be on a call to a scammer with CommBank’s Fraud team able to holds, blocks and declines and proactively send real-time alerts to the impacted customer, via a message through the CommBank app or NetBank.

According to Telstra data, Australians aged 65 and over lost more money to scammers in 2023 than any other age group as 85 percent of residential landlines services are registered to those over the age of 60.

CommBank’s general manager of group fraud James Roberts said, “Scammers are often bold enough to pick up the phone and talk directly with unsuspecting victims.

“They create a sense of urgency and use impersonation tactics to often trick their target to download software that gives them remote access to their victim’s computer.

“As an example, our teams recently used this technology to help stop an elderly customer from being scammed when she was talking to a scammer using her landline.

“The customer had been convinced by the scammer to download software that gave them full access to her computer and banking information.”

Roberts said the Scam Indicator technology allowed us to monitor the customer’s banking activity and decline around $70,000 in attempted scam transactions, “so the money didn’t end up leaving the customer’s account.”

Roberts added the venture is an example “of the power of collaboration, using data and technology for good with security and privacy at the forefront.”

“We know we are stronger together against the scammers when we take a whole of ecosystem approach – banks, social media, telcos, government, and also consumers, all have a role to play,” Roberts said.

Quantium Telstra CEO Sandy Cameron praised the Scam Indicator technology and the collaboration with CommBank.

"Protecting Australians from scams is a team sport and Scam Indicator is a powerful example of how we're stronger when we work together to help protect our customers from scammers.

 Cameron said that landlines “are still an essential service for many Australians, but they can also be a target for opportunistic scammers who prey on people's trust and goodwill.”

“Expanding Scam Indicator to cover landlines means we’re able to help safeguard those in our community that are most vulnerable to being targeted by cyber criminals," Cameron said.

The news follows as major banks such as ANZ, highlighted the importance of sharing personal experiences with scams to help widen community education on spotting potential cyber-criminal activity.