The National Australia Bank (NAB) has frozen not less than $270 million in payments to “high-risk” crypto exchanges between March to July. In a Monday blog post, the bank said the funds raised possible scam concerns, thereby prompting its swift intervention. With this development, NAB has joined the list of Australian banks that have started to show proactiveness in managing crypto-related scams so as to protect vulnerable investors.
According to its executive for Group Investigations and Fraud, Chris Sheehan, the Australian bank deployed several strategies to nab crypto scams in the last six months. Some of the measures as mentioned by the executive include the introduction of payment prompts, addressing spoofings, putting an end to the usage of links in text messages, and many more. He added that the National Australia Bank has now chosen to add the blockage of payments to “high-risk” exchanges to its list of measures to further nab the activities of scammers. Sheehan, however, boasted that the deployed measures have proven to be effective, helping the firm to protect customers from scams.
Over $200 million forfeited to crypto scams in 2022 – National Australia Bank
Meanwhile, the firm reflected on how Australians forfeited over $200 million to crypto scams in the past year. According to its data, not less than 50% of reported scam cases are crypto-oriented. It described crypto scams as one of the alarming security issues that require drastic action. Sheehan said the scammers work as organized crime groups, leveraging on vulnerabilities of crypto exchanges to send stolen assets. However, he affirms the commitment of the National Australia Bank to make it difficult for criminals to victimize its customers.
Worth noting that the banking giant is a proud member of an initiative which seeks to combat financial crime. According to our findings, the initiative comprises business organizations, government functionaries, security agencies and other industry groups. Driven by this initiative, Sheehan said the National Australia Bank recently collaborated with several telecommunication firms. The collaboration, according to him, is geared toward ensuring that criminals don’t infiltrate the phone numbers of customers. He said this effort led to a 29% reduction in reported NAB-oriented spoofing scams between January and May 2023.
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