Westpac Introduces AI-based Questionnaire as a New Scam Defense

Westpac, an Australian multinational banking and financial services company, has launched an artificial intelligence(AI)-based questionnaire to combat scams siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars from Australians each year.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that the number of people duped by scams has fallen slightly over the past three years, to about 2.5% of the total population, or about 514,000 people.

Westpac said its team of more than 500 financial crime experts has prevented scammers from taking $400 million over the past two years. On Tuesday, the bank bolstered its protective shield with the launch of a questionnaire feature for online banking and in-app transactions. 

The feature refers to flagging payments deemed suspicious and popping up AI-generated questions will pop up, such as "Is this an investment?" or "Is this money going to a friend?”. Westpac will analyze the answers and ask requisite follow-ups to compare the transaction with common scams.

“This innovation is the first of its kind in Australia and will add important friction to payments deemed to have high scam risk,” Westpac chief executive Peter King said.

Peter King said while preventative measures had led to a "considerable drop" in customer losses over the last year, fraudsters were still bilking customers out of millions of dollars each month.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported that Australians lost $567 million to fraud in 2022 and another $476 million in 2023.

The types of fraud being circulated are ever-changing. This month, Westpac is reporting emails made to appear to be from the bank which contains a link to a phishing website that will take personal information. “Never use a link received in an email or SMS to sign into your banking,” the latest scam alert says.

(Source: news.com.au)