The Commonwealth Bank reportedly suspects around A$1 billion in home loans were obtained fraudulently, including through AI-generated documents. The Australian Financial Review says the bank has reported itself to police and the corporate watchdog to investigate.
According to sources quoted in the newspaper, Australia’s largest bank discovered the suspected fraud last year, partly thanks to two whistleblowers. After rival bank NAB was allegedly defrauded of around $150 million, the Commonwealth Bank also reportedly began investigating its own loans. Its Australian home loans alone are worth around $634 billion.
While the bank is yet to make any detailed comment on the case, a Commonwealth Bank spokesman said the industry faced “sustained and increasing levels of attempted fraud, driven by criminals who actively evolve their methods”.
This is an industry-wide challenge, with fraud being attempted through mortgage broking and referral channels.
Even though I’ve been warning about the need to make AI companies do more to stop facilitating crime, the sheer scale of this suspected fraud still surprised me.
We should assume criminals won’t only have been targeting the Commonwealth Bank and NAB, but that they’re trying all the banks.
This case has implications for all of us: from individuals to business owners wanting to avoid being fooled by fake AI invoices, to the banks, our government regulators and the AI companies themselves.
Don’t panic – but expect tighter security
First of all, given the Commonwealth Bank has 17 million customers, let’s be clear: this won’t be a $1 billion loss for the bank.
From what we’ve heard so far, the bank should be able to recover a significant amount of this money. These loans are reportedly being paid off, and there are bricks-and-mortar properties involved to sell if needed too.
But even for a bank as big as the Commonwealth, $1 billion is no loose change. After suspected fraud on this scale, I suspect we are going to see all banks ramp up their security.
As customers, we should expect to be asked to do more to secure our accounts and secure our transactions. We’re also increasingly likely to need to use biometric authentication (such as facial recognition), as well as two-factor authentication.
I also think it’s likely to mean that, in future, we’ll need go into the bank to show ourselves along with our original documents – to a real person. That will be a lot less convenient than just providing certified copies to a mortgage broker. However, it’s also a lot more secure.
That way, the bank can see the real, physical passport, with its holograms and stamps, which are hard to reproduce.
Faking financial or identification documents with AI is now free and easy. For example, only last year we heard how ChatGPT could be used to forge passports.
Read more:
Can you spot a financial fake? How AI is raising our risks of billing fraud
Given the Commonwealth Bank is reportedly investigating the role of mortgage brokers and others in this suspected fraud, it’s likely we’ll see banks make mortgage brokers go through more hoops too.
And the Commonwealth isn’t the only bank offering loans. So people should be asking questions of their own bank: have you uncovered fraud like this in your own loan book? And what are you doing about it?
What regulators and governments need to do
As well as being used for fraud, AI is also being used by the banks to try to detect and catch scammers.
AI can be very helpful in looking for strange patterns – for instance, a mortgage broker is suddenly submitting three times as many home loan applications?
But fraud on this scale, affecting Australia’s biggest bank, does show the federal government needs to stop saying we don’t need any new AI regulation. We just don’t have adequate safeguards in place.
Rethinking how we pay bills and do business
Whether you’re a business owner or an individual, if someone sends you a large invoice to pay, don’t pay it until you’re sure it’s real.
It’s just so easy to “spoof” (mimic) someone’s web address, email or invoice, especially the first time you’re paying someone.
We’ve seen too many cases of “middle men” attacks, where criminals get between a person and the company they’re trying to pay, then change the bank details.
There are some terrible stories about how people have transferred their deposit to buy a house to what they thought was the solicitor’s account. But it was changed – and they lost their whole deposit.
My rule of thumb is that any time it’s a first-time payment, or sum of money large enough to really hurt you, call whoever you’re paying over the phone and confirm their bank details are correct.
FraudAlert: Fraud is defined as wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
Blistered Outlaw
Fun South African Fact: Water is not all there is to drink in this thirsty country! South Africa’s Cape Winelands have around 560 wineries and 4 400 primary producers. Included in the Cape Winelands region is Route 62, considered the longest wine route in the world. That alone is good reason to visit South Africa if you haven’t yet been!
Dove Dolce
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”