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Becoming a victim of debit card fraud is a nasty and unpleasant experience. Unfortunately an increasing number of Australians are becoming familiar bank account fraud. According to the Australian Payments Clearing Association, the total value of card fraud in Australia increased by 33% in 2014 to $387 million. While that figure represents just the 0.06% of the more than $650 million made on Australian payment cards that were actually fraudulent, it still shows that fraud can be an expensive risk for Australian banks and their customers.
Over the six years since 2009, the payment card fraud rate has risen from 33.7 to 58.8 cents for every $1,000 spent. With this in mind, what is your bank doing to ensure that you don’t become a victim of debit card fraud?
To find out what your bank is doing to keep your money and your personal details safe, let’s take a closer look at the fraud protection services of Australia’s Big Four banks.
Bank | Name of defence feature | Other security features | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
NAB | NAB Defence |
| Enquire Find out more | |
Commonwealth Bank | Commonwealth Bank Security |
| Enquire Find out more | |
ANZ | ANZ Falcon |
| Enquire Find out more | |
Westpac | Westpac Protect |
| Enquire Find out more |
NAB’s fraud protection service is known as NAB Defence. Wherever you see the NAB Defence logo, NAB has measures in place to protect you against fraud. The bank monitors your accounts and any high-risk transactions to detect any irregular activity. If any suspicious transactions are detected, NAB will inform you of this and then investigate the potential fraud.
If you’re a victim of fraud, NAB also guarantees to reimburse you any funds that are taken out of your account. Of course, you’ll need to make sure to responsibly manage your account and notify NAB as soon as possible after noticing any suspicious activity on your account.
NAB also allows its customers to enjoy increased security when shopping online with their NAB debit card using Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode.
Commonwealth Bank debit cardholders are protected by a range of security and detection devices. The bank uses advanced security and fraud detection systems to monitor customer accounts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These systems are designed to detect any abnormal transactions or spending patterns and Commonwealth Bank’s telephone alert system means the bank can contact you within seconds of any potentially fraudulent activity being detected.
Debit card security for ANZ customers is provided by ANZ Falcon. All ANZ credit and debit cards are backed by Falcon 24/7 fraud monitoring, which is designed to automatically detect any suspicious spending activity on your card. If Falcon detects any unusual activity on your account, ANZ will contact you immediately to check whether the transaction is okay or if something is wrong.
If the bank is unable to get in touch with you, it may block access to the account until you are able to confirm the details of the transaction. With this in mind, it’s always important to inform ANZ when you are travelling overseas – if the bank doesn’t know you’re abroad, it may suspect that overseas transactions on your card are fraudulent and block your account.
If you have a Westpac debit card, the bank also uses a 24/7 fraud monitoring service to keep track of every transaction and check for any suspicious activity. If an unusual or irregular transaction is detected, Westpac’s fraud specialists will contact you to confirm the transaction.
The bank also offers an Online Transaction Security Guarantee so that customers will not be liable for any fraudulent online transaction; however, the guarantee only applies if you notify Westpac of the transaction before the due date shown on your debit card statement.
Finding out that you’ve been a victim of debit card fraud is a truly angering experience. The discovery of an unexplained transaction on your debit card statement can be enough to send you into a panic, so it’s important that you stay calm and follow a few simple steps to take control and prevent any further loss of money.
Although the banks have plenty of measures in place to ensure that your money and your identity are protected, there are still plenty of common sense tips to keep in mind to ensure that you never become a debit card fraud statistic.
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