Find out why a banking association head issued a warning of a possible ‘explosion of scams’
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While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often associated with robots, movies, and science fiction, it's actually far more embedded in our everyday lives than we might realise. It's in our smartphones, our cars, and even our humble home appliances.
However, a rather alarming revelation has been shared regarding the relationship between AI and the safety of our hard-earned money.
As per Anna Bligh, the Head of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), advancements in AI could potentially lead to an 'explosion of scams'.
While this presents new challenges, not all is doom and gloom, as the advancements could also arm banks with novel tools to subdue these modern-day crimes.
Think of these AI technologies as a double-edged sword. Yes, they can enhance your banking experience and ramp up security measures, but simultaneously, they can pose significant risks.
Ms Bligh said that AI is already being used by financial institutions to track any suspicious activities in the accounts of their customers. But she also emphasised that the continued coordination between banks, other businesses, and law enforcement can do better to prevent scams from the very start.
'Every Australian bank has this issue in their top three priorities. We are seeing an explosion of scams hitting Australian citizens, and every bank is doing their best every day to try to make sure everyone is safe,' she said.
'They (scams) come to us via our telephone, our emails, our social media platforms. These are not issues over which banks have control, but we need to be seeing banks working with all of those players to improve and to eliminate the ability of scammers to actually get to people in the first place.'
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), households were scammed out of a gargantuan sum of $3.1 billion in 2022, marking an 80 per cent increase from the previous year. Victims lost $20,000 on average.
But the true scale of losses could be much higher as many Aussies do not report themselves as victims of these incidents.
Included in the report was a warning of the sophisticated technology being used by criminals to pull off scams. Some experts feared AI and deepfake could soon make it almost impossible to identify which is a threat and which isn’t.
Such was the case with one Texas couple who believed they were genuinely speaking with their son and quickly acted to help him.
‘I could have sworn I was talking to my son. We had a conversation,’ the mother recalled.
The couple further recounted how the scammer resorted to extreme measures to persuade them of the gravity of the situation, fabricating a story that the person involved in the accident was a pregnant woman who had miscarried.
You can read more about this scamming incident here.
Ms Bligh was also straightforward with how the development of AI could make the lives of Australians ‘much harder’ but maintained that these improvements also mean better opportunities for those working to fight against scammers.
'I think it could actually work on both sides of the ledger,' she said.
'Will it make it easier and easier for scammers potentially, but it will also make it easier for telcos and banks to protect people.'
Furthermore, Ms Bligh was also asked to address a common complaint, which is the difficulty and time-consuming nature of contacting fraud teams at most major financial institutions.
While she refrained from commenting directly on response times, she did take the chance to mention that banks do have dedicated and bigger fraud teams (bigger than the entire Australian Federal Police force!) working hard to protect customers from scams.
She also shared that even smaller institutions have these teams in place and explained that what most Australians don’t see is the number of scams that have been blocked before even reaching customers.
If you or anyone you know is a victim of a scam, contact your bank immediately and report the scam to Scamwatch through this link.
What are your thoughts on this latest discovery related to the development of AI? Share them with us in the comments below!
However, a rather alarming revelation has been shared regarding the relationship between AI and the safety of our hard-earned money.
As per Anna Bligh, the Head of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), advancements in AI could potentially lead to an 'explosion of scams'.
While this presents new challenges, not all is doom and gloom, as the advancements could also arm banks with novel tools to subdue these modern-day crimes.
Artificial Intelligence was likened to a double-edged sword, one that poses risks and simultaneously enhances the banking experience and ramps up security measures. Image source: Racool_studio on Freepik.
Think of these AI technologies as a double-edged sword. Yes, they can enhance your banking experience and ramp up security measures, but simultaneously, they can pose significant risks.
Ms Bligh said that AI is already being used by financial institutions to track any suspicious activities in the accounts of their customers. But she also emphasised that the continued coordination between banks, other businesses, and law enforcement can do better to prevent scams from the very start.
'Every Australian bank has this issue in their top three priorities. We are seeing an explosion of scams hitting Australian citizens, and every bank is doing their best every day to try to make sure everyone is safe,' she said.
'They (scams) come to us via our telephone, our emails, our social media platforms. These are not issues over which banks have control, but we need to be seeing banks working with all of those players to improve and to eliminate the ability of scammers to actually get to people in the first place.'
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), households were scammed out of a gargantuan sum of $3.1 billion in 2022, marking an 80 per cent increase from the previous year. Victims lost $20,000 on average.
But the true scale of losses could be much higher as many Aussies do not report themselves as victims of these incidents.
Included in the report was a warning of the sophisticated technology being used by criminals to pull off scams. Some experts feared AI and deepfake could soon make it almost impossible to identify which is a threat and which isn’t.
Such was the case with one Texas couple who believed they were genuinely speaking with their son and quickly acted to help him.
‘I could have sworn I was talking to my son. We had a conversation,’ the mother recalled.
The couple further recounted how the scammer resorted to extreme measures to persuade them of the gravity of the situation, fabricating a story that the person involved in the accident was a pregnant woman who had miscarried.
You can read more about this scamming incident here.
Ms Bligh was also straightforward with how the development of AI could make the lives of Australians ‘much harder’ but maintained that these improvements also mean better opportunities for those working to fight against scammers.
'I think it could actually work on both sides of the ledger,' she said.
'Will it make it easier and easier for scammers potentially, but it will also make it easier for telcos and banks to protect people.'
Furthermore, Ms Bligh was also asked to address a common complaint, which is the difficulty and time-consuming nature of contacting fraud teams at most major financial institutions.
While she refrained from commenting directly on response times, she did take the chance to mention that banks do have dedicated and bigger fraud teams (bigger than the entire Australian Federal Police force!) working hard to protect customers from scams.
She also shared that even smaller institutions have these teams in place and explained that what most Australians don’t see is the number of scams that have been blocked before even reaching customers.
What are your thoughts on this latest discovery related to the development of AI? Share them with us in the comments below!
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