Yahoo Finance ANZ issues warning to Aussie customers
ANZ customers are being targeted by a new SMS scam, with the major bank urging its customers to watch out for suspicious messages.
Scammers - pretending to be ANZ - have been contacting customers and asking them to ring them on a phone number provided in the message.
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“We’re aware of our customers receiving fake SMS messages pretending to be from ANZ, with an urgent request to call us on a phone number provided,” ANZ told customers.
“These SMS messages might appear to come from ANZ’s phone numbers or appear in the same thread as legitimate messages from ANZ.”
In some messages, the scammer claims a payment has been paused, or the customer’s account has been locked. In others, it claims the customer has registered their app in a foreign country.
ANZ urged Aussies to “please be vigilant” and to not call the number provided or share any personal information.
“If you receive a call from someone claiming to be an ANZ employee, and are asked to share passwords or other authentication details like ANZ Shield - hang up immediately,” ANZ said.
ANZ said it would never email, message or call customers asking for personal information such as passwords, PINs, account details or multi-factor authentication details. It will also never ask customers to transfer money into another account.
Aussies have been told to contact ANZ via its publicly listed phone number or other contact details listed on its website.
Phone calls are the most common mode of attack for scammers (51,234 reports this year), according to the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, followed by SMS scams (50,947).
Aussies are expected to lose $4 billion to scams this year, an increase from the $2 billion reported last year to Scamwatch.
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