Scam prevention and protecting the community, with ANZ’s Shaq Johnson

In this episode of Cyber Uncut, Shaq Johnson – ANZ bank’s head of customer protection – joins hosts David Hollingworth and Liam Garman to break down the current scam landscape in Australia, from what the scammers are doing to the real, personal impacts of falling victim to a scam.

As Hollingworth says in the podcast, 164,111 scams have been reported to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch already this year, so while scams are slowing down, it’s still a significant challenge. Our discussion with Johnson opens with what some of the most reported scams are and how they work.

Johnson then goes into the challenges that ANZ and other banks face, from tracing accounts linked to money mules and offshore organised scam organisations to whether scam victims should be reimbursed once they’ve fallen victim and sent money to a scammer.

Finally, Johnson explains the unique challenges of being a first responder to scam victims and outlines the approach ANZ takes to support its employees on the coalface of the fight against scammers.

Enjoy the podcast, The Cyber Uncut team