The National Australia Bank (NAB) is broadening its scam alert system to target invoice and romance scams, as new research indicates Australians are becoming more adept at identifying and avoiding scams.

The bank's initiatives align with the commitments made in the Australian Banking Association's Scam Safe Accord launched in November.

According to recent research, Australians are more scam-savvy than a year ago and are increasingly willing to share information to protect themselves from criminals. The study found that 70% of Australians ignore suspicious calls and delete questionable emails.

NAB first introduced payment alerts in digital banking in March 2023, which led to customers abandoning an average of $240,000 in payments linked to potential scams each day. Despite a significant increase in scam reports between October and December 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, losses have decreased.

"We have much more to do, but it's pleasing to see that, despite our customers reporting scams at a significantly high rate between October and December 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, we're seeing a decrease in losses," said NAB Executive, Group Investigations, Chris Sheehan.

"On average, we're seeing our customers abandon $240,000 worth of payments every day since our real-time payment alerts were introduced to the NAB app and Internet Banking in March 2023."

NAB has implemented initiatives such as removing links from text messages, making it harder for criminals to impersonate bank phone numbers, blocking payments to high-risk crypto platforms, and introducing payment alerts to the NAB app and Internet Banking. The bank is now expanding these alerts to include potential invoice or romance scam payments.

"We're now expanding these alerts and a customer may receive one if our fraud system detects a potential invoice or romance scam payment," Sheehan stated.

The bank has also introduced behavioural biometrics to its business banking digital platform, NAB Connect, and strengthened its Internet Banking platform, enhancing its ability to hold suspicious payments where necessary.

"We have also recently introduced behavioural biometrics to our business banking digital platform, NAB Connect, and strengthened our Internet Banking platform, giving us greater ability to hold suspicious payments where necessary," Sheehan explained.

Scamwatch estimates invoice and romance scams cost Australians a combined $434 million in 2022. However, NAB's initiatives seem to be having a positive impact, with scam events reported by NAB customers increasing by around 43%, but actual losses are down by around 25% when comparing the October to December period in 2022 against the same period in 2023.

"This is consistent with our insights, which show almost a third of Australians are happy for banks to slow payments down if it helps protect them from a scam," Sheehan concluded.

NAB's scam survey, which included a consumer panel of 2,000 adults weighted to the Australian population, found 40% of Australians had been contacted by their bank about a potential scam payment in the past year, and 75% took some action to prevent losing money.