Banks trying to manage the misuse of payment text fields have another problem to deal with besides abusive payments. Criminal organisations are using the text fields for communication.
Austrac has issued a guide to help financial institutions prevent misuse, reporting that it has identified an increase in the use of payment text fields as a method of both criminal communication and personal abuse.
It cited one survey which showed that 26 per cent of people have used some form of inappropriate language in payment transactions and another which showed that 40 per cent of Australians have experienced abuse or know someone who has experienced abuse in a payment text field.
Some offenders have been observed sending a high volume of small payments of less than A$1 each time, with offensive or threatening messages in the text field of each payment.
Commonwealth Bank reported that over the three months to the end of July it blocked 100,000 electronic payments with offensive messages.
The extent of criminal communication using payment text fields is not so clear but Austrac said messages have been detected that deal with child abuse material, illicit drugs, firearms, ideologically motivated extremism and outlaw motorcycle gang activity.
Payments have been detected with references to the supply of illicit goods or planned events.
Austrac said its policy is that all such communications are referred to the relevant law enforcement agency.
In cases where law enforcement involvement is not warranted, Austrac “encourages” financial service providers to intervene to prevent further misuse of payment text fields.
This might involve direct contact with the customer, warning letters, suspension of financial services or termination of the customer relationship.
Austrac acknowledged that this s not an easy task for financial institutions, given the volume of payment messages and the ambiguity of the language that may be used. Threats of suicide and self-harm may be sent without explicit or abusive language.
“A lack of offensive or abusive language does not deem a payment message harmless. These payments may not be identified through key word analysis of payment text fields,” it said.
Indicators of potential misuse include a high frequency of payments and very low value payments (which can be as low as one cent).
Banks’ armoury should include term lists and lexicons, sentiment analysis and systems that allow customers to flag abusive payments.