31 October 2012 6:49am

Screening customer payments for transfers to suspected scammers has saved National Australia Bank customers around A$1.9 million over the last 18 months.

David Bannatyne, executive general manager of banking and payments services at the bank, said many such payments were for a flat A$15,000, though some were as high as $25,000.

He said the bank's customers were usually responding to sophisticated cold-calling activities conducted offshore. He said boilerplate scams promoted high returns, in the order of 25 per cent a year, on investment schemes that claimed to excel in the...