In a bid to increment protection measures for crypto payments, Westpac would begin trials for crypto payment blocks and aim to reduce scams in the space.
In the latest press release, top Australian bank Westpac has announced its plans to start trials for crypto payment blocks. It aims to reduce suspicious activities in the crypto payments space through the initiative. It claimed that a third of all fraud payments and half of all the losses due to such scams are moved to crypto exchanges.
The trial of the crypto payment protection blocks would be rolled out in a phased manner. While the Australian bank’s fraud detection teams can detect up to 60% of all scams, it was still upgrading its security measures.
Westpac Verify is another customer verification tool being run by Westpac, which detects account name mismatches for crypto payments. It has reportedly saved over $250000 for customers in 2023.
Scam blocks and Dynamic CVC are other protection measures adopted by Westpac. Dynamic CVC is a digital card on the Australian bank’s app that is much safer than physical cards.
A senior executive at Westpac, Scott Collary, said, “The trial of our new security measures will better protect customers from scams. In particular, it will target investment scams, which have a devastating impact on our customers.”
He mentioned how scammers increasingly used overseas exchanges to attempt frauds, making it very difficult for customers to retrieve the funds. The scammers were likely using methods like fake social media ads and websites and documents, amongst others, to implement crypto payment scams.