- National Australia Bank (NAB) blocks payments to “high-risk” crypto exchanges to protect customers.
- Australians lost around $151 million to crypto-related scams last year.
- Between March and July, NAB intervened in over AU$270 million worth of payments to counter scams.
National Australia Bank (NAB), one of the country’s “big four banks,” announced on Monday that it would implement payment restrictions to “high-risk” crypto exchanges, citing customer protection following a multi-month increase in scams.
According to the lender, Australians lost approximately $151 million last year as a result of cryptocurrency-related scams. Even though NAB has only announced a new set of restrictions, it has not specified which crypto platforms will be affected.
NAB suspends millions of dollars in Payments Between March and July
The NAB said in a statement that it “intervened” in more than AU$270 million in payments that raised concerns about scams in the four months between March and July.
The bank stated that it had implemented several measures to protect its customers from scams. According to Chris Sheehan, the NAB’s Executive for Group Investigations and Fraud: “Introducing payment prompts, taking action on spoofing and stopping the use of links in unexpected text messages are among key measures we’ve introduced recently.
We’re now also taking action to block some payments to high-risk cryptocurrency exchanges to further stop scammers.”
He further stated:
“While many customers ultimately complete their payment after receiving a prompt, we see around $290,000 worth of payments abandoned daily. This tells us that customers are taking the time to stop and think before they make a payment.
While we’re focused on making banking simple and digital, we’ve added this extra friction to help alert customers to warning signs. We need to do everything we can to stop the crime before it happens.”
Australian Banks are Becoming More Stringent to Prevent Customers from Becoming Victims of Scams
Due to crypto-related scams, the NAB has joined the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in restricting customer payments to “certain” exchanges.
In addition, the NAB stated in its statement that nearly 50% of scam funds reported to the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange in the previous 30-day period were linked to cryptocurrency.
Mr Sheehan made the following observation:
“These scammers are part of organized, transnational crime groups. Increasingly, we’re seeing them use cryptocurrency platforms to send stolen funds quickly and often overseas.”
