Beware of bank impersonation scams, bank urges

BENDIGO and Adelaide Bank and its associated Community Bank branches are warning the community about bank impersonation scams, which saw more than $20 million reported lost from 14,603 reports in 2022, according to ScamWatch.

These scams impersonate bank brands, such as Bendigo Bank, with criminals often posing as cyber security or fraud specialists.

Increasingly sophisticated and convincing, bank impersonations can come via phone call, SMS, email or via a social media post, search engine result or advertisement.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank head of fraud Jason Gordon said bank impersonation scams are the new wave of phishing scams designed to trick the recipient into transferring money, or into providing personal information or banking details such as account numbers, passwords, and one-time codes.

“Criminals are getting adept at carefully constructing often complex communications that convincingly mirror those of the brand they are impersonating.

Bendigo Bank is committed to educating customers and the wider community about the rising threat of bank impersonation scams and is urging customers to learn the signs of a bank impersonation scam:

There is a sense of urgency or threat to the message, like “your bank account has been accessed”, “your bank account has been locked” “a payment has been made from your account. If this was not you, please call (phone number)”

The message looks different to other messages in the SMS thread, such as different wording or phrases used

The message may contain a suspicious looking link. Never click on links you’re not sure of

The SMS has a telephone number to call – always find your bank’s phone number independently, and

A caller telling you to transfer money to a different account to “keep it safe” or for ‘further investigation’. A bank will never ask a customer to do this. It is a scam.

Bendigo Bank alerts customers to active scams at bendigobank.com.au/security/scams/alerts and recently shared an example of scammers targeting customers via an email which included Bendigo Bank images and branding. The scam asked recipients to verify or update accounts, with links directing unsuspecting victims to a fake website where their details could be harvested by criminals for various fraud and scams.

Scammers are also using spoofing to trick victims, with ScamWatch reporting total losses to phone and text scams of more than $169 million in 2022, a significant increase over the previous year.

“Spoofing is when phone calls appear to come from legitimate numbers and SMS messages appear in the same conversation thread as genuine communications, making it very difficult for people to detect genuine communications,” Mr Gordon said.

“That’s why its so important that customers take extra precautions and be aware of signs of a scam,” he said.

His advice to customers who may have fallen victim to a bank impersonation scam is to head to bendigobank.com.au/security immediately to report it and get support.