CBA and Telstra partner to protect customers from phone scams

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Telstra announced a new tool to protect customers from increasing phone scams.

The latest initiative from both CBA and Telstra, Scam Indicator, is currently in the proof-of-concept stage and will be piloted over the next few months. It will help protect joint CBA and Telstra customers from phone scams where scammers try and manipulate people into transferring large amounts of money.

CBA will utilise Telstra API as a part of its scam detection process, which was designed to identify certain high-risk scam situations in real time. The new tool will enable CBA to check if a customer is on a phone call—the number one sign that a scam is happening. CBA will try and contact the customer and put in additional checks.

To ensure the privacy of both parties, CBA will only have access to certain data points relating to scam prevention through API and cannot access other underlying customer data.

Early results of simulations indicate the prospect of improvements in the detection and prevention of scams and will mitigate customer losses of up to $15-20 million.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said: “CBA and Telstra are committed to helping customers protect themselves from the financial losses and emotional trauma associated with scams.

“We are focused on helping customers stay safe by improving early detection and prevention of scams. We have been working with Telstra to produce a machine-learning scams detection model, the first in a number of exciting initiatives from this partnership.

“We acknowledge that there is more to do given the rising volume and fast-changing nature of scams. We’re committed to playing our part to address this national priority alongside leading businesses, government, and the broader community.”

Following further testing, Scam Indicator is expected to be made available by CBA to joint CBA and Telstra customers later this year.