Australian bank Westpac has announced plans to launch SafeBlock, a panic button-style initiative that aims to combat rising scam numbers.
SafeBlock, as described by Ben Young, Head of Fraud at Westpac, is a “panic button customers can press” to lock down their accounts and cards if they believe they’ve been scammed.
Westpac plans to add the feature to both its mobile app and online banking services in the coming months.
Carolyn McCann, Westpac’s Group Executive, Customer and Corporate Services, said: “From experience, we know that scammers strike when we are at our busiest, often catching out unsuspecting customers.
“With SafeBlock, if a customer suspects they have been scammed, they will be able to immediately block their accounts in the app, preventing any further damage.”
“This is a break-glass emergency option for customers so they can stop a scam in the moment when acting fast is absolutely vital.”
Westpac stated that this launch comes as a reaction to the increasing levels of fraud and scams. The Australian bank referenced data from the National Anti-Scam Centre, which found Australians lost over $2bn to scams last year.
While SafeBlock joins a list of safety measures put in place by Westpac to protect its customers, the bank highlighted the number of scams that originate on social media platforms.
Westpac noted that this announcement comes just days after Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, revealed that over 230,000 scam ads had run on its platforms since 2019, using images of mining magnate Andrew Forrest to promote fraudulent investment opportunities.
“Scammers are always evolving and we keep seeing new variants on the scams. The top ones remain investment scams – they’re still the number one scam in town in terms of dollar loss,” Young added.
“Remote access scams are hugely popular, that’s when someone offers to take control of your computer to ‘help you’ and we’re seeing lots of buying and selling scams on social media sites.”
This issue has been widely discussed in the UK, where fraud experts told Payment Expert last week that social media giants should be held more accountable, rather than placing all the responsibility on financial institutions.
