Digital abusers have turned to money transfer transactions to target their victims.
When victims block them on social media or refuse to respond to texts or calls, these abusers sometimes turn to putting threatening messages in the transaction descriptions for money transfers.
According to Westpac bank, they discovered more than 2500 transactions containing threats, cursing, and other inappropriate messages.
“It’s shocking that individuals are using real-time payment transactions to harass and threaten others, often circumventing blocks on other channels like SMS and social media to reach the recipient,” Westpac General Manager Customer Solutions, Lisa Pogonoski, said. “While the vast majority of customers use our platforms respectfully, these steps will help provide more protection for customers sending and receiving payments through our online and mobile banking channels,”
The bank deployed new tech to monitor outgoing transactions for inappropriate or offensive language. Customers will be notified of the problem and the payment will be blocked until the language is removed.
Customers will be able to flag incoming transactions to report abuse and those messages will be forwarded to a dedicated team to review them and consider further action.
If you’ve been the victim of threatening messages through money transfer, make sure to report the incident to your bank and to local law enforcement.