An algorithm created by ANZ Bank detects malicious exploitation of payment fields in transactions to annoy or abuse victims.
The algorithm was created by the bank’s financial crime team to prevent its digital payment services from being used to transmit abusive texts.
The algorithm was created using “abusive payments indicators disclosed in an AUSTRAC financial crime handbook,” according to an ANZ representative.
“This algorithm has identified potential urgent dangers to life in some instances, and those high-risk cases have been escalated to ensure that authorities have been able to take action,” the representative added.
“This algorithm recently detected a person who has sent a victim a series of nasty and threatening payment communications.”
An internal inquiry was launched after the individual was recognised as a repeat offender, and the suspect was eventually caught by police authorities, according to the spokeswoman.
ANZ is a founding member of the Fintel Alliance, which was founded in 2017 by AUSTRAC to increase the finance industry’s capability to deal with such issues and assist police investigations.
NAB has recently stepped up its efforts to prohibit inappropriate messages in transaction description sections on a regular basis.
In March alone, the bank said that it was able to stop 10,000 fraudulent transactions from 6800 different customers.
Payments made via NAB’s banking app using inappropriate terms are not processed until the message is altered, according to the company’s policy.
In addition, Westpac currently uses data analytics across payments to detect “subtle threats and patterns of abuse” in description fields, while the Commonwealth Bank has developed machine learning algorithms to look for abusive patterns of behaviour.
