The National Bank of Australia (NAB, one of the largest banks in the country) said that over the past few months it has blocked a number of payments to cryptocurrency exchanges with “high risk” in order to protect its customers.
Between March and July 2023, the regulator intervened in transactions worth more than 270 million Australian dollars ($183.8 million), which raised concerns about fraud. The bank did not disclose what proportion of all warnings was related to possible cryptocurrency fraud.
“The introduction of payment prompts, taking measures to prevent spoofing attacks and users clicking on links in suddenly pop-up text messages are among the most important measures we have recently introduced,” Chris Sheehan, NAB’s head of group investigations and fraud, said in a statement.
The bank also clarified that last year, Australians lost more than 221 million Australian dollars ($ 150.5 million) due to fraud related to cryptocurrencies.
