CBA, Vodafone team up in SMS scam initiative

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Vodafone Australia have teamed up under a new partnership to share “scam intelligence” to improve their ability to block scam activity.

The two kicked off a pilot that will see both parties share SMS insights in near real-time, that lets Vodafone identify and disrupt scammers, while CBA can execute blocks on suspected fraudulent payments.  

The bank said the both parties will be sharing “SMS scam-related intelligence” to create measures “designed to help protect customers from rising SMS scams.”

CBA general manager of group fraud James Roberts said the risks of scam rise as Australia enters the festive season.

“Our latest data shows that fraudulent text and email messages are the number one scam trend impacting our customers,” Roberts said.

Roberts said that with the “heightened risk”, it’s recommended that “consumers remain alert for potential scams, including those delivered via SMS with messages imitating major courier or postal companies.”

“This pilot and timely intelligence sharing between CommBank and Vodafone allows us to proactively investigate and analyse the latest SMS scams in near real-time to ultimately help disrupt, detect and proactively block fraudulent payments,” Roberts said.

CBA noted that Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre found that in November 2023 alone, scammers most popular method to swindle money was via text message, with more than $24.5 million being lost to this type of scam so far this year.

Vodafone’s general counsel and general manager corporate security Simone Sant said keeping consumers safe is “why in 2020 Vodafone set up a cross-industry fraud forum, which still meets regularly today.”

“This forum brings together banks, telcos, postal services, law enforcement and regulators to work together to combat scams."

Sant said working with the likes of CBA “allows us to share information and resources to help protect our customers and empower thousands of Australians to hang up on scammers.”

Sant also said this year alone, Vodafone blocked over 67.8 million SMS scams from reaching Australians.

Last month, Australian banks signed up to build a new payment confirmation system, implement technology and tighten associated controls in efforts to combat rising scams and fraud under a new "Scam-Safe Accord".

At the time Roberts commented that CBA’s “belief is that a whole-of-ecosystem approach is required to address scams.”

Over the year, CBA has also introduced NameCheck technology and has made it available to other industries.

The bank also officially switched on its ‘scam indicator’, developed in partnership with Quantium Telstra.