Scams like these

[lovestotravel]

I have a business banker who knows my banking affairs intimately. They still should not be asking customers to accept messages to their phones asking for personal and income information. I'll be saving the SMS and email as evidence for the lawyers in-case I ever get scammed and Westpac refuse to re-imburse me.

What message did you have to "accept" ? It was an SMS...

If you have a SMSF/trust etc KYC is done far more often than for personal customers.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Bankwest wanted me to phone them up, thought, oh/um, but the threat of them being able to close accounts, or as others have said, deny access, made me spend nearly an hour on the phone with them, they wanted to know who I worked for, etc.
Even how long, and also who my previous employers were.
I got the FACTA one too, from a different bank but this time by a form, included in a bank letterheaded letter, so I knew this was genuine, I had to write and fill in, and send back.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yep failing to respond to KYC etc is a very easy way for them to close your accounts.

Some banks are easy, some require pages and pages of forms, which MUST be posted, to verify trust/business names, registered business addresses etc.

 

[prozac]

Yep failing to respond to KYC etc is a very easy way for them to close your accounts.

Some banks are easy, some require pages and pages of forms, which MUST be posted, to verify trust/business names, registered business addresses etc.

I forwarded sms to my business banker who called me back. He agrees saying Westpac should not be putting links and numbers into an SMS (my complaint) and should not be asking income details. He has pushed this up the tree a bit.

 

[DejaBrew]

I forwarded sms to my business banker who called me back. He agrees saying Westpac should not be putting links and numbers into an SMS (my complaint) and should not be asking income details. He has pushed this up the tree a bit.

I don't really see that Westpac has done anything wrong here. They haven't asked for any personal info in the SMS. They've correctly advised you to visit their website or call their number (which you could independently verify from their website). Your phone will be turning plain text into weblinks - something that's outside of Westpac's control. In terms of asking for income details, this is pretty normal in the KYC process and will be part of their internal risk management mechanisms for managing their overall anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing risks, which again, is a legal requirement of financial institutions.

 

[prozac]

I don't really see that Westpac has done anything wrong here.

Don't you!

 

[DejaBrew]

Don't you!

What do you expect that they should have done? Even if they had not included their legitimate website and phone number, you would still have assumed this was a spam/phishing text.

 

[lovestotravel]

I forwarded sms to my business banker who called me back. He agrees saying Westpac should not be putting links and numbers into an SMS (my complaint) and should not be asking income details. He has pushed this up the tree a bit.

Oh yes and what do you think is going to happen ?

 

[Kerrodt]

Sadly, I ended up doing it, as any bank can close your account for any reason at any time...

Kind of of, banks hide/use both of them when they need to tick a box or two

It's a bit more than a box ticking exercise for the banks. It is a legal requirement and if they are found to be in breach of the law there are serious ramifications for the bank and potentially the staff involved. The government agencies that oversee the AML/CTF/KYC legislation are unable to offer much, if any, leeway when it comes to breaches.

The fact that you were asked for the birth certificate years after the account was opened, due to an error made by the bank at the time the account was opened, was probably the result of an audit by the bank. The fact that the error was made years ago does not offer up reason to continue with the error once discovered. The bank probably should have offered a few more options on how you could rectify the situation rather than just telling you to go into a branch with the document.

Back in the day before KYC was taken seriously, banks had accounts in the names of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the neighbours pet cat and dog and any other thing you could think of as means for hiding money and money laundering.

The last thing any of us need are banks getting lazy on KYC/AML/CTF and the regulators letting everything pass them by and not caring.