Westpac to Enable Consumers to Block Accounts When Suspecting Fraud

Westpac, a bank operating in Australia and New Zealand, plans to enable customers to immediately block their account through its app or online banking.

This new SafeBlock feature, which will be added in the coming months, is meant to be used by customers when they suspect they are being scammed, the bank said in a Monday (March 24) press release.

When activated, the feature will block digital and card payments, transfers and ATM withdrawals, according to the release. Pre-scheduled transfers and subscriptions with a BSB and account number will continue as normal.

With SafeBlock in place, customers will be able to report any suspicious transactions to Westpac for investigation, per the release.

“This is a break-glass emergency option for customers so they can stop a scam in the moment when acting fast is absolutely vital,” Carolyn McCann, group executive, customer and corporate services at Westpac, said in the release.

SafeBlock will join several other scam fighting tools the bank has added over the past two years, according to the release.

These include Westpac SafeCall, which verifies that calls through the app are from the bank; Westpac SaferPay, which asks customers questions when a payment is considered a high risk of being a scam; and Westpac Verify, which alerts customers when there is a possible account name mismatch when they are adding a payee, the release said.

The bank has also added Dynamic CVC, cryptocurrency blocks, merchant blocks, call spoofing measures, inbound payment detection and technology to combat remote access scams, per the release.

“We’re continuing to introduce new tools to help bring down scam losses but we need other organizations across Australia to step up and stop scams at the source, so we can shut these criminals down,” McCann said in the release.

It was reported in December that another banking giant, HSBC Australia, was facing a lawsuit over alleged fraud-prevention failures.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said that it was suing the bank, accusing it of failing to have proper controls to identify and stop unauthorized payments.

Reached by PYMNTS at the time, an HSBC spokesperson said in a statement: “HSBC acknowledges the claim commenced by ASIC today. We are considering the matters raised and will continue to cooperate and work constructively with ASIC. Protecting our customers from scammers remains a top priority. We continue to make significant investments in our fraud and scam prevention, detection and response.”