Millions of CommBank customers urged to be on the lookout: ‘Message us immediately’

CommBank customers have been urged to ignore scam texts trying to dupe them into revealing their personal information.

The texts work by telling the customer that they have a new incomplete transaction and prompts them to call a fake CommBank phone line set up by cyber criminals to steal their details.

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CommBank issued a public warning saying customers needed to be on the lookout.

“These are not legitimate CommBank communications. Do not call or reply to the sender,” it said on Thursday.

“We are currently working with authorities to shut the scam down, but ask that you share this message amongst your friends and family for awareness.”

Its advice is to stop, check and reject any messages that seem suspicious.

“If you believe you have fallen victim to this scam, message us in the CommBank app immediately,” it said.

New technology allowed scammers to trick their victims by making text messages appear in the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages or having the call appear to come from the bank’s legitimate phone number, Scamwatch warned.

Scamwatch received 14,603 reports of bank impersonation scams last year, with Australians losing more than $20 million to the sophisticated trick.

Some unlucky victims have been swindled out of their life savings in minutes, including one man who lost more than $500,000 after receiving a call from a scammer claiming to be from a major bank’s security department asking if a payment had been authorised.

Scamwatch this week warned the latest sneaky phishing scams were designed to trick targets into contacting the scammers.

It urged Australians to be vigilant and never provide online banking passwords, one-time security codes or pins to anyone over the phone.

Instead, the advice is to contact the bank directly using contact details the customer has sourced.