"Scammers are continually upgrading and changing what they do and banks have to counter that," banking expert Claire Matthews says. Photo: RNZ / 123rf
Banks have launched a number of anti-scam tools in recent months, but Consumer NZ says they are still not going far enough.
Westpac this week said it was launching a digital card for online shoppers with a changing security code, so even if fraudsters obtained the details they could not be used for long.
ASB launched Caller Check, which allows customers to check a call is really from ASB using the ASB app.
Banks are also offering "confirmation of payee" to assure people making online transactions that the bank account matches the name given.
Consumer NZ spokesperson Jessica Walker said it was positive to see the advances being made.
But she said there was a risk that it sent the message that banks were doing "all they could" to stop scams. "When in reality it's still your average New Zealanders who continue to shoulder all the responsibility for spotting and addressing and trying to prevent a scam."
She said Consumer's research consistently showed 10 percent of households said they had lost money to a scam in the preceding 12-month period.
"While banks look like they're doing more, the number of victims is not dropping."
Consumer's most recent financial institutions survey showed 22 percent of people said they had fallen victim to a scam.
"That's a huge amount, eye-watering, really."
She said the confirmation of payee rollout had gone well. "We will congratulate the banks on the fact they've rolled out confirmation of payee, we think that's a critical tool in addressing scams. But as we've been saying all along, why has it taken so long? Some countries had that in 2017."
Walker said banks should be required to reimburse scam victims. "That is the one thing that would make a huge difference because banks would have a financial incentive to keep people safe. I know the counter argument is that people will be laissez faire with their information but overseas it's not played out like that at all."
She said there should also be a government anti-scam centre.
But banking expert Claire Matthews, of Massey University, said banks were very aware of the problem and doing what they could as quickly as they could to resolve it.
"They want to help customers but the simple reality is it's good for them as well."
She said the fact a number of initiatives were being introduced at similar times indicated there was work being done that took time to come to fruition.
"Scammers are continually upgrading and changing what they do and banks have to counter that."
She said it seemed that banks would offer the same protections here as they did in Australia, except when it was not possible due to their systems. (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350232517/westpac-introduces-fraud-busting-tech-only-australia)
"We need to remind people to be on the lookout but also recognise that you can be as alert as you like but the scammers these days are really, really good."
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