ANZ Banking Group said it has stopped more than 500 attempts at opening a fraudulent digital bank account using stolen data in the past year-and-a-half.
The bank revealed the number in a post on its BlueNotes blog on Wednesday, crediting the “multi-layered approach to security” for preventing the accounts being opened on ANZ Plus, its digital banking service that launched in early 2022.
Join value stream lead Gabe Steele wrote that onboarding checks included viewing and verifying the authenticity of physical documents, selfie checks and “behavioural signals” analysis.
“The addition of a selfie, a photograph of a physical identity document and behavioural signals into the onboarding process has enabled ANZ Plus to prevent the fraudulent opening of accounts,” Steele wrote.
“This has saved customers, from not just ANZ, but from other Australian banks, millions of dollars in losses.
“The early success of this approach has meant ANZ has prevented more than 500 fraudulent actors from opening ANZ Plus accounts with stolen data.”
The behavioural analytics, meanwhile, sees the bank delve deeper into “behavioural biometrics”, which profile device configuration and regular usage patterns; fellow ‘big four’ bank CBA is another user.
“Behavioural biometrics analyse how an individual usually interacts with their smartphone or other device and uses this information to create a unique profile,” Steele wrote.
“This profile is then used to ensure the person in possession of the device is the registered user.
“Behavioural biometrics will be increasingly important in an artificial intelligence world as these unique characteristics are much more difficult to mimic than visuals.”
Steele added that once onboarded, ANZ Plus customers are also “automatically enrolled in multi-factor authentication” as an added security layer.
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