16-07-2025
Big banks warn businesses of Kimberley scam cluster
Scammers are targeting businesses in Western Australia's remote Kimberley, with multiple attempts to steal tens of thousands of dollars prompting a warning from two of Australia's major banks.
The East Kimberley Chamber of Commerce and Industry said at least four businesses in Kununurra, 3,000 kilometres north of Perth, were targeted by impersonation scams last week, with one falling victim.
Chamber chief executive Keda Bond said the organisation had received several calls from concerned family businesses.
"It's more than one bank, and it's a cluster at this stage," she said.
"It [the scam] was unfortunately successful a couple of times."
Ms Bond said one business owner recorded the deceivingly "real" fake call.
"That makes it even harder for people, especially when you're a busy business owner."
Kununurra business owner Troy Lewis received a scam call from a person claiming to work for Westpac.
Mr Lewis said the call sounded so legitimate, he thought it could have been artificial intelligence.
"I asked the type of details he [the scammer] would need and he proceeded to do a very good disclaimer saying, 'The bank would never ask for PIN numbers or passwords over the phone,'" he said.
"It sounded very official."
The trucking company owner said the call only ended when he asked the scammer for a customer reference number.
"We've got a policy to always ask for a reference number, and then we'd call the bank back directly," Mr Lewis said.
"I felt a little bit silly asking him … because it did sound very legitimate.
More than $6.5 million has been lost to telephone scammers in 2025 through hacking, identity theft, phishing and downloading remote access software, according to Scamwatch.
Out of the 9,750 reported scams, 898 have occurred in Western Australia.
NAB executive Chris Sheehan said while customers had reported a decrease in impersonation scams over recent years, the operations remained a "global epidemic" with "devastating consequences".
"This highlights the need for a coordinated, national approach to stop the crime before it happens," he said.
Westpac's fraud protection team head Ben Young said while bank scams were not new, the bank was seeing an increase in scammers targeting regional businesses.
"Obviously businesses move around large amounts of money, so it's an attractive target for them," he said.
"We do see little clusters like this where they're working through some directory that they've found."
Mr Young said scammers tweaked their operation when unsuccessful.
"They're very thick-skinned, so even though they fail most of the time, either the bank stops them or the customer notices, they have no issue with rejection and just polish their craft," he said.
Mr Young said the scammers operated as a "global business", predominantly operating from South-East Asia.
"Almost townships have been set up to run very big-scale call centres and they have huge emphasis on good English skills," he said.
Both NAB and Westpac reiterated the importance of technology and education in reducing the impact of scams on customers.
"These transnational, organised criminals run scams like a business and are the same groups linked to drug, arms and human trafficking," NAB's Mr Sheehan said.
Anyone subject to potential banking fraud should contact their bank.
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