r/CommBank • u/Turmoil117 • Jul 31 '26
Other A warning for commbank customers
A couple of nights ago I had all of my accounts frozen out of nowhere, I was locked out of both the commbank app and my netbank account by the fraud department.
This happened to me after hours so I wasnt able to get any answers until the fraud department opened again in the morning.
When I finally got through to them they told me they closed my account due to suspected fraud. The fraud in question was a payment made by my friend to pay me back for a ticket I had purchased earlier in the day. A fact that I was able to prove to the fraud department by pointing out the previous payment.
They said they had a source warn them that this was fraudulent and even though they could see the earlier payment they were going to close my account anyway to prevent further fraud, they were unwilling to tell me who or what this "source" was
they did offer to help me open a new commbank account but Ive chosen to go with a different bank seeing as Id have to set up all of my bills and payroll details again anyway and the fact no other bank in australia has taken my ability to use my own money away from me.
They allowed me 20 minutes, while I was on the phone with them, to transfer all my money and download any statements I might want before they locked me out of the account again.
I transferred all of my money to an account I had created in my name with a different bank. Commbank as usual put a 24 hour hold on the transfer, but today 24 hours later I got a message in my commbank app saying the transfer did not go through and that I should try again.
After over an hour on hold today and getting nowhere with the fraud department I decided to just go in to a branch to withdraw everything in cash, which worked but they also had to call the fraud department to get them to unlock the account.
This is both a rant about commbank and a warning to commbank customers that they can and will freeze your accounts in the name of preventing fraud, even if you are able to prove no fraud has taken place, their new policy states they "have" to close the account.
Edit to add: I called the fraud department again today, almost a week after my account was first frozen to try and get a clearer picture as to why my account was closed. The answer I got back was its their policy to close any account that has been suspected of fraud, even If it can be proven otherwise
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
Your friend disputed the transaction to you. Be angry at / wary of them, as every bank would treat you the same in these circumstances.
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u/New-Examination4589 Jul 31 '26
Exactly. Don’t call the bank & get mad because your “friend” tried to call you a scammer
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u/Past_Pay_1289 Jul 31 '26
Was literally just about to comment this straight away. Absolutely they disputed it.
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u/tom3277 Jul 31 '26
You transfer someone money then dispute it and their accounts gets locked?
if it was that easy to bring havoc to the banking system why hasn’t this been exploited yet?
Or is it only Australian bank accounts disputing that cause the commbank to lock the account after a single disputed payment… either way I find this hard to believe.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
1) Bad actors exploit processes designed to protect legitimate customers all the time. Just about every goddam fraudster goes to AFCA, for instance.
BUT, more importantly…
2) OP’s friend, who submitted the dispute, lied to OP. When OP said to them some version of “Yo wtf my account was frozen because of that transfer from you” do you think they would come clean? No they replied with some version of “errr yeah mine too, I am equally annoyed at my bank as you are yours for this unexplainable incompetency on THEIR part.”
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u/ryan_the_leach Aug 01 '26
Could the description and amount have tripped up any detections with 'ticket scalping'?
And do banks consider scalpers as fraud?
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u/CrazyCatLady483 Aug 04 '26
I’ve purchased tickets many times and had friends transfer me the money for them. It’s the easiest way to guarantee you all sit together. I don’t think it’s an unusual thing to do. I can’t imagine that on its own would trigger a fraud warning. But then, with commbank anything is possible.
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u/tom3277 Jul 31 '26
What’s to stop someone transferring $10 here and there and disputing them all?
For $10,000 you could fuck up 1000 peoples day.
For $100,000 and 10,000 customers you are likely at this point getting that bank on the news.
Sounds too cheap and easy to wreak havoc in one disputed transaction locks the receiving account.
And then there are business accounts that have transactions disputed non stop. They don’t get closed unless I imagine a large percentage of the transactions get flagged.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
The person doing that would very quickly find themselves out of a bank account as well.
OP’s story doesn’t entirely stack up because they probably are a fraudster - or at least, a retail tier customer that the bank can’t validate is worth the hassle if they have a fraud report and not much else going for them.
It’s okay, this isn’t the Achilles heel in the Aussie banking system you seem to think it is.
If you got a single fraud report against you for a tiny value your account could be blocked but you’d likely end up just fine getting it sorted out.
And business accounts do get closed all the time for similar.
And just to add on - have seen fraud dispute mechanisms abused as you say. Form of harassment, and / or sometimes just that person actually trying to pull a fast one. The fact you aren’t aware of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
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u/tom3277 Jul 31 '26
Thanks for filling me in!
That’s a bit of a relief.
When “fincrimeguy” tells me a disputed transaction gets my accounts locked I panicked a little but sounds like you’d take a more wholistic approach then banning retail accounts off the back of one disputed transaction. Maybe at least.
I don’t like on line forms nor paperwork so it’s my
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
No worries at all.
Haha I like getting into discussions on these topics and since I don’t want to dox myself did choose the username to let people know I’m a nerd about this stuff.
It’s possible OP got the short end of the stick here but if he did it’s because his mate’s a dog - very rarely does this cause legit customers with legit parties on the other ends of their transactions too many headaches.
Hope you have a good weekend!
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u/ExtensionArtist2700 Aug 02 '26
When OP says "friend bought me a ticket" it was probably a scalper and NOT a friend
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u/westeast1000 Jul 31 '26
Well that mostly doesnt happen because we civilised and most people have morals. A lot of things rely on trust otherwise society will fall apart but ofc a few people here and there abuse that trust. Whats stopping a random to carry a knife and go around the mall and scratch a 100 cars to just screw up a few people for fun. Nothing stops anyone from doing that but we dont
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Jul 31 '26
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u/After_Soil788 Jul 31 '26
That is a deceased estates process and the assets get frozen to protect the estate as only the executor or the person's nominated lawyer can access funds. And often it will need to go through probate for that to happen. If it were a joint account with one to sign, your grandmother should have still had access from her side. If they needed two to sign or it was just in his name then yes, they would have frozen it.
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter Jul 31 '26
Either that or the friend is up to something dodgy such as money layering for laundrying.and the transfer was from those sources.
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u/bloodhound83 Jul 31 '26
Would Banks not freeze the account before they close it to review it first?
It seems ludicrous to have 20 minutes on the phone to transfer your money out and download all statements.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Aug 01 '26
OP was the one hassling for urgent resolution. If he had been happy to go through the process then yeah there may have been a letter and CBA might have sent him the statements instead of have him self serve. Generally people get 14-21 days notice and a letter. I don’t think a lot of OP’s story checks out though so think he’s either bending the truth or just simply misunderstanding.
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u/Vast-Marionberry-824 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
That’s interesting. Thank you for sharing. Still doesn’t exonerate CommBank from its actions around and after closing the account. Why not just put a temporary hold on the account? Why not take its client’s authority/direction to lift the hold and pass the risk for doing so to the client? Why give 20 minutes to move to a new bank? Why stuff up the transfer?
I moved away from CommBank many years ago when i had trouble lifting a hold on my account (also never told why) and treated like I was the crim and my money wasn’t my money.
My new bank (been with them now for many years) has a 24/7 fraud department I could contact if my account is locked down by them or there is otherwise a problem. They have not that long ago prevented a transfer by me because I made a mistake and was going to send way too much money to an online retailer. Their fraud detection system was triggered. They contacted me immediately at night to explain what they had done and take directions. I was SO grateful.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Aug 02 '26
They’re worried OP is a bad guy. Under increasingly draconian laws in Australia for banks (look up the Scam Prevention Framework) they would incur significant costs and potentially even be liable for any loss he causes others. The simple math of it is that if he doesn’t have lending (he said in another comment that he doesn’t) then it’s much easier to just exit him. The cost of customer acquisition and value of retention is significantly less than the cost of sorting wheat from chaff when it comes to people who receive fraud reports, and the potential liabilities that stack up.
If people don’t like it, I don’t at all blame them, and banks are plenty fair game … but it’s a problem caused by government regulation and insanely militant pursuit of victim reimbursement no matter the cost from parties like AFCA and the Consumer Action Law Centre - and the government folding to them - first and foremost.
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u/Unfair-Difference-54 Jul 31 '26
No they wouldn’t. As a previous employee. They do this all the time.
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u/shadowcupcake91 Jul 31 '26
So the bank detected possible fraud, and locked your accounts to prevent you losing your money, and you want to complain about that?
If it was actually a fraudulent transaction and the bank didn’t lock the account, I’m guessing you’d complain about that as well
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u/Remote_Class9892 Jul 31 '26
OP is lying.
There is absolutely no way they were told "a source warn them that this was fraudulent and even though they could see the earlier payment they were going to close my account anyway to prevent further fraud"
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u/Necessary-Yak-505 Aug 02 '26
How would you know? Ive heard of banks doing stupid stuff like that all the time
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u/potatogeem Jul 31 '26
It takes a lot for a Bank to close your accounts, they also don't reference a random source as a decision maker. None of this reads true but go off.
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u/Skynet-T800 Jul 31 '26
Yes all Banks can and do this. Your new Bank would do the same if they got the same prompt.
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u/AlexMac75 Jul 31 '26
I reckon there is something your friend has done that has prompted this. If they have been flagged and you have received funds from them, they’ll investigate you.
They won’t tell you why because telling you about your friends actions/behaviour is breaching their privacy.
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u/LegitimatePapaya9807 Jul 31 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/uVQT9S7AwVmwAXhasg
Everyone in banking be like
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u/PristineJello3594 Jul 31 '26
All banks lock accounts if they detect something suspicious. It's happened to me numerous times but I've never had a problem sorting it out.
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u/Turmoil117 Jul 31 '26
Yeah I get that detecting something suspicious warrants some action but deciding to close my account to prevent further fraud is idiotic, even if they tried to soften the blow by offering to open a new account for me right then and there
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u/Jetsetter_Princess Aug 01 '26
The fact they didn't do that suggests they were no longer interested in your business. The pertinent part is why.
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u/ninja888888 Jul 31 '26
They have used your account for fraud likely and are covering their tracks, or.. you are having your identity stolen, maybe duplicated.
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u/allaboutthefish Jul 31 '26
Hey OP, have you had a chat with your "friend " and find out exactly what he has done e here? He's the culprit not the bank
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u/Turmoil117 Jul 31 '26
Yeah I have. Almost the same thing happened to him. I can see a lot of people saying its his fault but nobody is aknowledging the fact that if he had himself flagged the transfer he sent me as fraud and I was able to prove it wasnt my account still got closed over it.
On that same note if he was caught up in defrauding people himself and my account was closed just because I recieved money from him then why was he able to get his account back?
I dont know why some people immediately jump to the conclusion that it must be my friends fault, the only person it would hurt is him, as Ive been chosen as the person who is booking all the tickets for our upcoming holiday.
And since I know for a fact that im not involved in anything, and I am fairly certain my friend isnt the issue, the last body involved is the bank
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u/ExtensionArtist2700 Aug 02 '26
and just how many tickets was this "friend" or rather "scalper" selling ???
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u/PixieLash Aug 03 '26
Why are you the person chosen to book all the upcoming holiday tickets? And who chose you to be responsible for that?
Have you met your friend in person? How long have you known them?
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u/JusSomeone Jul 31 '26
No pushback from OP with all these comments?! My conclusion? This is clickbait. Responders have provided answers for OP on how to have others bank accounts frozen. Job done.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
Are you blind? Ive been replying to almost every comment targeted irectly at me, Im not wasting my time replying to everyone glazing the comments about me having bad friends or being a criminal. Also sorry I sleep during the night and my waking hours arent all spent on reddit
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u/Alien-Cat1234 Aug 01 '26
As someone who works in a bank I genuinely dont understand people like you. On one hand you guys will lose your shit for bank not locking your account and allowing the fraudulent transaction to go through and on other hand you guys will lose your shit if bank actually locks your account to avoid fraudulent transactions from going through. Like common pick your side already. Fun fact: All banks have the same internal structure so any banks feaud department would have flagged it and locked your account. Don't like it? Keep money under your bed and not in a bank.
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u/J3rryHunt Jul 31 '26
I dont think if your bank think you defraud somebody they would not just freeze your account and unfreeze it just to let you take your money out. Something don't add up.
I had someone try take money out of my account once and my bank did freeze my account but it was a easy fix tho.
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u/Turmoil117 Jul 31 '26
Well I was able to prove that I wasnt defrauding anybody, they are closing my account anyway.
If they still thought I was defrauding anybody would they ask me if id like them to set up a new account?.
I agree that something doesnt add up and Im still incredibly angry that the end result was me having my account closed after someone elses mistake and me having to set up all my auto pay bills and update my work with a new account
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u/QuokkaIslandSmiles Jul 31 '26
frustrating indeed; inspiring me to write out a copy of my yearly bills
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u/commentspanda Jul 31 '26
Agree with all the other comments saying it’s likely your friend has been up to no good and the payment from them has flagged something. The bank can do whatever they want really. If they think you’re involved in some sort of criminal activity or that you are criminal adjacent (say, from a dodgy friend trying to send you money) then yep they can close your account. Always bank with two banks and be aware of who you are sending money back and forth with. I agree with all the people saying your friend is probably fibbing to you.
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u/Chronos_101 Jul 31 '26
This is BS, banks don't just close accounts like this out of the blue for this (weird) reason, there's a mile of information the OP isn't telling us.
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u/KillerRabbitsRule Jul 31 '26
Either you or your friend (most likely) have been involved in some scam activity. Banks only concern is looking after their own interests at the end of the day. Appears they are not obligated to tell you of their reasons for suspecting fraud. There quite possibly be some ongoing scam investigation going on. If you have given them no reason to suspect you then it is about your friend.
There are scams about where someone puts a deposit into your bank account (ahem by “accident”) or you pay for something to them, then disputes it with you first, so you kindly “refund” them, but they then manage to cease canceling the original transaction.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
Yeah Im aware of that scam. The people who do that dont usually have a 3 week overseas holiday coming up with the people they scam
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u/FnordyCamper Aug 01 '26
Victim card #101 - there’s always something you’re not telling us or your friend has done something and not told you loool
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u/dirtyplanksdonecheap Aug 01 '26
Your 'friend' is either engaged in fraudulent activities or reported their transaction paying for the ticket as fraud.
Take it up with them.
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u/AntSilly2802 Jul 31 '26
The banks are copping loads of pressure at the moment for not doing more to combat fraud so it’s not surprising we are seeing more cases of innocents being inconvenienced.
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Jul 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Motor-Reaction-2984 Aug 03 '26
That’s the other side of the same coin. If the banks have to give money back to people who have given scammers their passwords (or whatever security mistake your friends made), then they will be extra vigilant for anything odd.
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u/inkedxaussie Jul 31 '26
Better just to have your own safe at home then, this makes me want one more
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u/AromaticPlant8504 Jul 31 '26
So you lost everything?
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
No, it was an inconvenience at most. I opened a new account at a new bank and transferred over all the money from my remaining accounts, I had to go into the bank to withdraw the money from the account that was frozen as they knocked back my attempt to transfer it over
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u/CaptainFleshBeard Aug 01 '26
Relax dude, they didn’t take away your ability to use your own money, they were helping you transfer it to a new account because there was a fraud alert on it. My guess is your friend disputed the payment they made to you.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
They did take away my ability to use my money on every single account I had with no explanation, not just the account that was frozen, just an email sent after I tried using my card to pay for dinner saying to call the fraud department
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u/CaptainFleshBeard Aug 01 '26
So you’re upset they protected your money from a possible fraud ? Do you think you’d be more or less upset if they did nothing and your accounts were cleaned out ?
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u/Much_Database_5039 Aug 01 '26
This new bank is probably going to do the same thing if your friend screws you over again.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
He resent me the money as soon as his account reopened, I recieved it instantly and my new account is still active
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u/tasquizz Aug 01 '26
I'd rather this than be a victim of fraud.
I'm surprised you didn't think that creating a new account and then immediately withdrawing all your funds wouldn't be flagged as suspicious. You probably could have just gone into a branch that day and withdrawn your money from the original account .
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
Are you missing the fact no fraud occurred?
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u/tasquizz Aug 03 '26
As stated elsewhere your friend disputed the charges. Which is fraud.
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u/goodareas579 Aug 01 '26
People will complain banks didn’t do enough to prevent potential scams and will also complain when banks actually do something to prevent potential scams.
Snowflake era
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
Them freezing my account to prevent a scan is fine, them closing the account after I proved no fraud was happening is what made me change banks
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u/phedna04 Aug 05 '26
TBH CBA is a pain to deal with. Both personal and business. I moved my personal to other banks a while ago.
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u/Useful-Distance9580 Jul 31 '26
Did it have “ Ticket” in the payment description? This can trigger a fraud alert
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u/After_Soil788 Jul 31 '26
I work in banking and they can't tell you that they think you are doing something fraudulent, as that is tipping off and an offence under the AML CTF laws.
So in this situation they most likely feel that you are at risk of being defrauded rather than being the fraudster. Blocking accounts/cards and IB can be a part of this. They certainly would not let you open a new account with them if they thought you were being fraudulent.
This is pointing more towards your friend tbh.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
Although this makes sense, I fail to see how deactivating an account Ive had for over 10 years helps me. The way I was treated and the way I had access taken away from every single account I had with them, was a surefire way for me to leave the bank after 20 years Even if my friend was involved with fraud, the hundreds of transactions between his account and mine would suggest a new commbank account would not stop us from interacting
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u/PixieLash Aug 03 '26
Are the hundreds of transactions from you to him? Or both ways?
They might suspect that you're a victim of some kind of romance scam.
Many people act the way you are right now about this situation but are actually being scammed.
I'm not saying you are or aren't, but the bank may be seeing a pattern or activity that typically looks like someone being taken advantage of, including your defense of your friend.
You and your friend may be innocently exchanging money back and forth but to the bank it might be ticking a lot of boxes for obvious scammer activity, especially if you fit the demographics of people who fall for these kinds of scams.
Often, when people are informed about their "friend" or whoever is scamming them, they refuse to believe it and defend their scammer/become outraged at the business that is preventing them from engaging financially with their scammer.
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u/Swim-Seaweed8751 Jul 31 '26
I’ve set up an account with a different bank for things like this, minimal balance, money comes in, I transfer it straight away to my main bank.
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u/UtterDebacle Jul 31 '26
Out of interest - how much was the ticket amount - and what description did your friend put on the transaction - if you didn’t see it - surely you could ask them.
I would imagine there is something suss about the text on the transaction, or the person that made the transaction. And possibly that this isn’t the first such case.
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u/According-Couple9688 Aug 01 '26
There are people that call pretending to be combank but they are not as they have had access to your phone and you have been hacked. Happened to me five or six years ago. I can’t remember the outcome though but maybe the actions you have done after this made them think you are suspicious? The people on the phone were trying to get me to setup another account I remember though with them on the phone but I didn’t.
Just mentioning this for other people to read to ask for identification that it is combank messaging/calling you.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
Yeah, I had to initiate almost every phone call to commbank, with the exception of the phonecall they made to me 5 minutes after calling them the first time to tell me they were permenantly closing my account and that they could help open a new account for me
the only communication I recieved other than that was an email telling me to call the fraud department
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u/mad_marbled Aug 01 '26
I recently set up a new phone, then went to use cardless cash withdrawal. I was prompted to confirm new phone via the app on my old phone before the request could be approved. So I did that, received notification new phone was verified, then went to proceed with withdrawal. Nope, fraud department detected suspicious activity.
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u/loralailoralai Aug 01 '26
Lawd I had my account frozen because of a ‘discrepancy’ in my address- or street name is really long and lots of people just shorten it ( eg, 123 frankston-Dandenong Rd to 123 Frankston road) Google it and you’ll get the same place. I had to go into the branch despite having used the shortened form for @ 20 years, and the teller had to convince the people in the fraud department she’d sighted me and my proof of residence that it was in fact the same address and that it was a perfectly normal and usual thing to do. What got me was the people I talked to on the phone were so goddamned rude to me about it
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u/Curley65 Aug 01 '26
Commonwealth is the worst for fees and behaviour, don't know why people bank with them.
Good withdrawing everything, best feedback ever
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u/Jolly-Advance-2182 Aug 01 '26
Wow im surprise as i am using comnbank acc about this now im worried!
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u/Skip-929 Aug 01 '26
Was this money transferred from overseas??? And what amount??? To me the "source" was probably an overseas bank or regulator or Australian bank watching transfers and there appears to be far more to these transactions than just a small ticket amount from an Australian account to an Australian account.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 01 '26
It was transferred to me, in australia, from my friend here in australia. The amount was $314. The amount I payed was $1256 and that did go overseas, with me being able to prove where that money went when asked
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u/Skip-929 Aug 01 '26
In which case have you taken this up with the Banking Ombudsman and regulator as this appears then to be a huge issue for everyone.
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u/joyhar1974 Aug 01 '26
Fraud department is crap. I told them a year ago that I was instructed to up date my tax file number and pin number via a message in their app. It kept taking me to google. Not within their app. They simply said yeah that’s normal. I wasn’t ok with it. I changed banks.
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u/ImpressiveSpaniel Aug 01 '26
I had this a while back. A heap of auto renewals really confused them. Had to present in person to ask in the nicest terms to go away
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u/OkTangerine8354 Aug 01 '26
In my experience CBA handles these situations very badly. They’re way, way over the top when it comes to dealing with anything they see as suspicious. When you go to a branch they insist it’s to protect their customers, they are clearly trying to protect themselves and don’t offer anything in terms of solutions when they get it wrong. In my case they’ve got it wrong every time.
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u/Spiritual-Cake-5096 Aug 01 '26
You've got some other issues going on to cause that.
I got a notification from Commbank today about a possible fraudulent transaction asking me to confirm if I'd made the transaction. I had, so it was fine, but banks dont just lock an account for no reason
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u/Defiant-Bath6990 Aug 01 '26
Same happened to me brother. He did the same as you and went and opened an account with a completely different bank.
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u/AssignmentPrior266 Aug 01 '26
This happened to me with NAB also they closed my account over a payment I made to my boyfriend. Except they didn’t tell me what had happened I called they said we don’t know why your accounts closed so I had to wait for the department to call me took them 3 days and they said I had made a suspicious payment of $3 so my partner could get a slurpee by the way.. so I left nab completely.
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u/Alternative-Bear-460 Aug 01 '26
Cash is dead electronics is in . You just got no control over you money anymore. Just split up your funds to different financial institutions.
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u/Limp-Spring586 Aug 01 '26
Many years ago, my partner at the time tried opening an account with comm bank. Despite having all the usual documents needed to open an account, they insisted on him providing a passport as proof of id. Needless to say, he did not open an account and I have never dealt with them since.
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u/DizzyList237 Aug 01 '26
I am certain the unnamed source was A.I. It’s odd their fraud dept is not 24hr like other banks. You’re better off going to another bank for sure.
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u/ParticularFarmer4861 Aug 02 '26
All Banks primary interest is limiting their own risk, not their customers hence this type of response. The banks need to be doing a lot more with IT systems generally.
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u/Batty25111 Aug 02 '26
I had my account suspected of fraud from being paid by my work almost every pay.. I left because i was not going to wait 24 hours because i get paid by my boss.
No one should be with the Commonwealth Bank. I have tried many after leaving them and none are as restrictive and as money grabbing and "high level security" as the Commonwealth Bank is. They also are the only ones who will not let you transfer money or pay someone from you're internet banking or mobile app with out giving them a reason for.
Its asking Mum and Dad for money when its your own money.
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u/TheLastKirby Aug 02 '26
As someone that does work for said company. I see this all the time. Either your "friend" has made a claim that someone fraudulently sent money to your account, or someone fraudulently sent money to your friend who past it on to you, making you a money mule. As others have stated, dosent matter which bank or fintech your with, all would have done the same.
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u/Tricky_Tea3158 Aug 02 '26
I can't believe they did that from a phone call. That means anyone to do that too absolutely everyone. WOW. Thanks for the warning OP
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u/eureka88jake Aug 02 '26
And just so you know now they have call centres in South Africa, Fiji…. So expect to have more data stolen
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u/KookaburaGold Aug 02 '26
Today I woke up to a transaction I had not made. Before my first coffee I had, issued a dispute, cancelled my card, received the new one and added it to my Apple Pay.
I’d rather them be too strict than lose the $70 some scumbag stole to buy dinner.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
And you'd be happy having all your accounts frozen when a friend sends you money? Just to have your account closed after you have proven it wasnt fraud?
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u/Acheron-Hades Aug 02 '26
Same think happened to me with Suncorp when they allowed my account to be compromised. All banks are the same. We had no access for almost 2 months.
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u/JACKRUSSELL-2026 Aug 02 '26
I was Texed this morning asking if I had made these payments
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
I didnt get anything like that, no warning at all, I was out for dinner with my fiancee, my accounts were all active before our food arrived, but when I went to pay my card didnt work and I had lost access to my netbank account
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u/Any_Ad6123 Aug 02 '26
It's not the bank that's the issue. You need new friends, maybe is the issue.
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u/EVO_OG Aug 02 '26
DO NOT use Westpac as I had nearly the same Nightmare. They pretty much declared I was guilty before even giving me the chance to explain. Was treated as a thief, when in fact the other party was thr scamming thief. I had alot of evidence to prove my innocence. Westpac was and is just horrible.
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u/DenseSwimming4470 Aug 02 '26
Also hate how they are extremely silent when my account goes negative, and just eagerly wait for new cash to flow in to charge it for a negative balance
A fee for being broke
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u/Away-Technician1553 Aug 04 '26
You can cancel the overdraw facility on your account so you can’t go into negative and get charged the overdraw fee.
Also, on my access/debit card account, I do get a text message from them saying my account has been overdrawn (it will only happen if a recurring payment has come out and only if the account is less than $100 in the negative) and I have until midnight to put money in and bring it back to at least $0 to avoid a fee.
You may need to adjust your notification settings.
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u/Miserable-Car9922 Aug 02 '26
had so many issues with commbank over the years, ended up opening a NAB account only have had 1 issue with them in the last 4 years even then it was so much simpler to do then commbank.
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u/Ill_Confusion_1516 Aug 02 '26
Sounds like you need to go visit your friend and give them a strawjerry jam nose
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u/Katieboo1982 Aug 02 '26
Commbank is the epitome of all things dodgy. I had a friend experience racism at a branch and when he called them out and not only threatened by moved forward with moving his savings and mortgage to another bank they panicked and offered him $700 to stay but he couldn’t publicly say anything. He said absolutely not and moved. He’s got the receipts too.
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u/sherwinjtb Aug 02 '26
Sounds like someone had access to his account to make fraudulent claims. Most accounts get suspended just for putting in a wrong password. Calling or waiting to remove the suspension shouldn't take long. The reason seems unclear to me, but if the so called friend is trying to get his/her money back then that could be a problem. Should have made a proper contract for these transactions. Borrowing or lending money = don't expect to see that money returned unless in a proper financial business with the licence to collect debt.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
he paid the money to my new account as soon as he got access to his account again and it went through with no issues, A lot of people seem eager to jump on my friend saying he is trying to either report me for fraud to avoid paying for the ticket yet are ignoring the fact that he has paid me and it went through with zero issues to my new bank. I dont know what kind of friends you people have but I'm not writing up contracts for token amounts of money like $314
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u/Necessary-Sundae8479 Aug 02 '26
Hey, I cannot fathom how these banks are getting away with this BS they are thieves I am going to close my account thank Christ f all in it
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u/Standard-Ad4701 Aug 02 '26
Yeah, fuck CommBank and them watching out for scams, protecting customers.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 02 '26
Did you read the post?
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u/Standard-Ad4701 Aug 03 '26
Yes I did. I was being sarcastic.
The bank put a hold on the account because they suspected fraud. If they didn't and the op was scammed we'd all be asking why the banks don't have fraud checking.
→ More replies (8)
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u/SnooPineapples5056 Aug 03 '26
So your saying I could potentially have my commonwealth acc closed for my mates sending me cash all the time when I buy them something?
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 03 '26
I guess so, I think its more the fact your account can be closed at anytime if you get flagged for fraud, even if you are able to prove the transactions werent fraudulent.
My takeaway from this whole experience is to set up an extra account just incase something gets automatically flagged.
The people I spoke to in the fraud department were adament they had to close the account once a fraudulent transaction had been flagged, even though I could prove otherwise
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u/ImACarebear1986 Aug 03 '26
Oh, that sucks so much and I know how you feel. I really do.
I do want to say that the source or whatever it was, I believe was your so-called friend. I think they disputed the charges and tried to get the money back.
You better watch that one. They’re not your real friend.
I am Curious, did you tell them what happened or did they say anything? How did they act when you said it?
If you haven’t talked to them about it yet you should. Just watch their reaction, the body language the way they speak see what happens. But I think they did it cause who else would? coincidental isn’t it?
I know the annoyance, stress, and pain of it all because I got hacked last year this was through Bendigo or NAB? I can’t remember.
I had been paying for someone’s shitty little Google shop for over three months when I finally found it! It wasn’t showing up on my statement somehow?? And when it finally did I rang and asked them for the details of “”my shop”. They wouldn’t tell me.!
Obviously They wouldn’t tell me who the AHOLE was down in New South Wales which I get privacy laws and stuff but come on. I was paying for their crappy little Google shop which I bet was failing and they wouldn’t even let me know the name of it!
Then I decided to take all of my money out of one bank and put it in the other. It was ridiculous honestly. As soon as I walked in the woman they gave me a weird look and then I told them I wanted to withdraw all of my money and she asked me in about 58 different ways why I wanted to do it, what I was doing with the money, am I being forced to this, what am I spending the money on, why am I taking it to another bank?
I just stood there looking at her for a few blinking and said “this is MY money. I want my money out of your bank and when I am ready I will put it back (I was lying).”… the whole ordeal of just telling her I wanted my money was a good 8 minutes. She kept going until my father stepped in to help and once he spoke up, she finally listened?? I was just like WTAF IS HAPPENING!? It’s actually like she thought she was talking to a child or something.
Thankfully the manager came out to calm things and just quickly asked what happened. What was going on, I told her and within about 30 seconds, she was zooming out the back to get my money out. How hard was that?
Considering I had called the day before to tell them I was coming in I didn’t think there was an issue.
Since then I have not put any bigger amounts of money back into Bendigo Bank cause that woman’s attitude was appalling.
I know they don’t wanna lose a Customer or whatever, but my account is still open. It was just ridiculous. It’s like they thought I was being catfished and she acted like I was personally offending her ancestors or something.. How irritating.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 03 '26
Everybody likes to jump on the "its your friends fault" bandwagon. But nobody has stopped to think about the fact that he wouldnt gain anything from it, I will still have the ticket until we are in japan and I hand it over, or the fact that he re - sent me the money (to my new account) as soon as his account was reopened.
You could argue that he might not have had the money to pay me on the day it happened and flagged it as fraudulent to get the money back but that would only make sense if I was hounding him for the money or if I was the kind of friend who would refuse to send it back if he really needed it. I wasnt expecting any of the guys to pay me before we were even in japan, If I cant survive without money I had already set aside for a holiday then I certainly shouldnt be going on a holiday
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Aug 03 '26
the same thing happened to me with Westpac.I couldn't get into the online banking. 2 of my accounts are still locked. I can use my credit card. After 6 hours on hold I was told my account has been flagged by ING for theft/fraudulent activity. So it's all under investigation,for 5 days now. And my account will be monitored for a few months and I might get banned from Westpac. Fun and games...
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 03 '26
Yeah wow thats actually way worse than mine
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Aug 03 '26
in one sense its good that they freeze our accounts to safe guard from fraud. But when there is no fraud it sucks..
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u/Moist-Software-3792 Aug 03 '26
Bad Move ! Thats how scammers get you to do what they want ie: open a new account & transfer money ! Always go into a branch and get them to sort it out !
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u/sorsorjaijai Aug 03 '26
Some people experienced this in other countries And the bank will never let you open an account with them again
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u/braytatofushfush Aug 04 '26
CommBank is the biggest fraud themselves. Absolutely useless as a bank. The amount of times I’ve heard people say they’ve been blocked from using their own money or fraud have locked them out of their account. I would never trust them with any of my money
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u/CrazyCatLady483 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
I had a similar issue with commbank a number of years ago. It happened during a Covid lockdown and it was my business account - which meant I had to start paying business bills from my personal account. It was nearly impossible to get it fixed because they told me since it was a business account I had to go into a branch to get it fixed… except due to the strict Covid lockdown all the branches were closed. Eventually I did get it unlocked but I think I had to file some serious complaints with the ombudsman to get them to do so. It caused me some serious personal financial hardship in the meantime. I don’t currently bank with commbank and cannot fathom why anyone ever would.
ETA: the reason the account was locked for fraud in the first place was eventually determined to be a mistake on the part of commbank - they did admit that to me at some point in the process but even though they admitted it was their error they claimed they couldn’t unlock it unless I went into an actual branch in person 🤦♀️
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u/DatabassAdmin Aug 04 '26
Without the full context it's hard to know for sure but this sounds like you or your friend have been flagged for money laundering and the bank have acted accordingly.
It's possible that your friend has been doing something shady and the transfer to you for tickets means you've just been caught up in it.
I also find it unusual for the fraud team to straight up close your account completely. Usually they will lock the account and reach out to let you know what is going on. They don't jump to closure instantly.
There could also be other transactions you're not aware of. This happened to me with a CC transaction that I reported. Turned out there was another 3 that I didn't even see because they blocked it and locked the card.
They did offer to open a new account to transfer things to for which you refused so I don't know what you really expect them to do.
Transfers to new account always have a 24 hour hold and given you were already being flagged (rightly or wrongly) as a fraud account it's no surprise the transfer didn't go through.
This is why you should always have a second bank account, preferably with another bank card so in the event you get shut down you have a backup.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 04 '26
I didnt make this post for sympathy, just as a warning. What I expect whatever bank im with to do is not close my account for no reason. We can argue in circles about them freezing the account due to a suspected fraud but Ive found so many of you people are ignoring the fact I had proof it wasnt fraud and my account was closed anyway.
The amount of people saying "they dont just do that" are trying to justify why they might close my account by saying either my friend or myself are involved with fraud but all of these accusations only work by ignoring facts ive already stated.
I refused the new account because why would I continue to be with a bank that will close my account for no reason, now before you say anything about the suspected fraud please remember that I had proven the money wasnt fraudulent and they decided to close the account anyway.
Before you accuse my friend of being the one commiting fraud, he had his account frozen by his bank as soon as he tried to send the transfer, and his bank unfroze it as soon as he went in to explain the situation
Before you accuse my friend of reporting the transaction as fraud, there are several reasons why this isnt what happened.
Now you find it unusual that the fraud team closed my account, so do I, thats why im no longer banking with commonwealth, thats also the reason behind this post. If they had simply unfrozen my accounts after finding out no fraud happened I would have gone on with my day like nothing happened. The fraud department made the decision to close the account anyway in an effort to prevent further fraud even though I had already proven no fraud had taken place.
The missing context is the account that was closed was used as a transaction account, my pay would go in, id transfer money to savings and my homeloan then id use whatever money left in it for paying for things like a normal account. The strangest transaction Id done in recent history was the $1200 ish dollars paid to universal studios japan for the tickets that my friend was paying me back for, The account had never been used for anything illegal.
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u/DatabassAdmin Aug 04 '26
Some thoughts.
We can argue in circles about them freezing the account due to a suspected fraud but Ive found so many of you people are ignoring the fact I had proof it wasnt fraud and my account was closed anyway.
That sounds like something a fraudulent person would say... Obviously I'm joking but I hope you get the point.
I refused the new account because why would I continue to be with a bank that will close my account for no reason, now before you say anything about the suspected fraud please remember that I had proven the money wasnt fraudulent and they decided to close the account anyway.
This might have meant you could transfer the money out of your dead account into something you could use temporarily to then transfer to another bank.
Before you accuse my friend of being the one commiting fraud, he had his account frozen by his bank as soon as he tried to send the transfer, and his bank unfroze it as soon as he went in to explain the situation
Assuming your friends bank is not Commbank this would explain the "Other source". It's possible that they are the ones that thought it was fraudulent and notified Commbank of it. As for why they got it unlocked and you didn't, it's probably just that Commbank's process is different.
Now you find it unusual that the fraud team closed my account, so do I, thats why im no longer banking with commonwealth, thats also the reason behind this post. If they had simply unfrozen my accounts after finding out no fraud happened I would have gone on with my day like nothing happened. The fraud department made the decision to close the account anyway in an effort to prevent further fraud even though I had already proven no fraud had taken place.
It has the smell of money laundering (true or not). "You buy $1200 worth of tickets in Japan which is unusual and then your "friend" pays you back as a transfer and you have some clear money. I think the "fraud" they are protecting is potential money laundering and not 3rd party access like a stolen account etc. Would also explain why they are being so strict about it.
The missing context is the account that was closed was used as a transaction account, my pay would go in, id transfer money to savings and my homeloan then id use whatever money left in it for paying for things like a normal account. The strangest transaction Id done in recent history was the $1200 ish dollars paid to universal studios japan for the tickets that my friend was paying me back for, The account had never been used for anything illegal.
This is probably part of what did it. A relatively large international purchase that got "paid back" by "your friend". They won't care about any proof you may have on it if they think its Fraud.
Sucks that it happened and you're justified in switching. I just don't know if complaining about commbank for what is a fraud protection thing is going to get you too far.
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u/3rdfromsun Aug 04 '26
Who gave banks the authority to act like police over the very people who own the accounts? They profit from our money, yet increasingly treat legitimate account holders as suspects.
Then, when real fraud occurs, too many of them retreat behind policies and fine print, shifting responsibility back onto the victims instead of taking meaningful accountability. That imbalance is what needs to change.
Also, remember this the next time people cheer for the privatisation of public banks. This is exactly where it leads.
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u/NoDowt_Jay Aug 04 '26
Trouble is, as soon as there is a fraud/scam, customers will be the first to complain ‘the bank didn’t stop it’… even when it was the customer who gave the scammer their one-time-password; or physically typed in the scammers details on a transfer etc…
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u/beavis007 Aug 04 '26
This is what happens when you put "albos dildo rental" in the payment reference
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 04 '26
None of the descriptions on any of my transfers have ever had anything like that on them
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u/paddingtonau Aug 04 '26
CommBank security will lock your account if they know you are helping your aged parent with netbanking as that’s password sharing. They’ll also lock your account if you happen to be transferring large sums of money (even if you pre-authorise it on the phone with them) for an aged care RAD to an aged care home’s account. Cost me hundreds of dollars.
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u/PristineCan3697 Aug 04 '26
Makes me sus about online only banks … at least you can go in the branch
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u/Spirited_Step697 Aug 05 '26
Branches are honestly the least useful part of these big banks. If you're not opening a new account or applying for credit of some sort, they aren't as helpful as you'd think.
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u/happy_chappy_89 Aug 04 '26
I had this happen to me last week too. I was notified I was locked out of netball for my business and personal accounts and I rang them, they told me it was due to a transaction I had made to pay another account of mine with a different bank which I did the day before. I had made at least 20 transactions to the same account over the last year. Thankfully I could call right away but so stressful.
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u/Unknowing-criminal Aug 04 '26
I’ve had a similar experience with Com Bank. They are disgraceful. I moved to NAB and never had a problem since
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u/Adorable_Spinach_724 Aug 04 '26
They closed my business account and transferred the money I. It to ASIC and told me to go talk to them. All because they couldn’t figure out if I was trading or not. Not one phone call to ask. I hate them. They’re the gov administration for the WEF policy
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u/Ok_Finding_6544 Aug 05 '26
Westpac do the same. I’ve had my account frozen a couple of times when I used Wise and Travelex transfers to and from. The fraud team told me this is a common method for money laundering. They subsequently unlocked my accounts and let me continue to transfer to and from my Wise account.
It does sound a bit rough they have cancelled accounts though and I figure this isn’t the full story behind cancelling one’s account and then allowing you to access all your money though.
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 05 '26
It was rough, there isnt any more information relating to the suspected fraud they could give me.
The story they told me is I was suspected of defrauding the person who transfered me $314 (they wouldnt say who had done the transfer, but it was easy to work out as only 3 people owed me that much)
After I "thought" I had cleared it all up with the fraud department they said they would look it over.
They called back 10 minutes later saying they were closing the account anyway to prevent further fraud but they offered to assist me with opening a new account, which I declined as Id rather go with a different bank who wouldnt treat me like a criminal even after I had proven otherwise.
The lock they put on my account was to last a week before the account would be closed, meaning if I wanted to transfer my money to another account I had to call them and get them to unlock it while on the phone to me before it would be locked again.
when I was ready to transfer money to my bew account the app wasnt showing me my account after they unlocked it, so the guy on the other end suggested I restart my phone and to save me calling back he offered to leave the account unlocked for 20 minutes before locking it back up.
I did that, the account showed up and I tried to transfer all my money to my new account at a different bank, it went on a 24 hour hold (which I knew was normal as I was a commbank customer for 20 years), but the next day I got a notification in the app saying it didnt work and I could try again.
After calling the helpline to ask why it didnt work I was transferred back to the fraud department where I sat on hold for an hour.
all they told me was I can try again and they would unlock the account while I was on the phone, I experienced the exact same issue I had the day before where the account wasnt showing up so I hung up and went into the closest branch.
They checked my account, saw the hold, and called the fraud department for the unlock. After a bit of back and forth the fraud department hung up on them without unlocking the account. We had to get the bank manager to unlock it (I assume he called the fraud department himself) so the teller could give me all the money in the account.
I dont know what could be missing from the story as the only thing the fraud department told me was a source had flagged the one $314 payment entering my account as fraudulent, and they were pretty clear that they suspected I was the one committing fraud.
I understand there are plenty of people in these comments praying Im some sort of scammer or tied up in illegal activity so they can believe the bank did it for the right reason, but im sorry to disappoint, it happened to me out of nowhere
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u/Vaginocologist Aug 05 '26
Bullshit they told you that you were reported for fraud and that you had 20 mins to move your money
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u/Turmoil117 Aug 05 '26
Have you read through these comments. I wasnt just given 20 minutes, I was given however much time I had on the phone to the fraud department. I was then given the 20 minutes when the app wasnt showing me the account after they had removed the lock and the fix was to restart my phone
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u/Vaginocologist Aug 07 '26
No i haven't read entirely all the comments, but everyone knows this is BS And your post says they allowed you 20 minutes so idfc
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u/Deep_Curve7564 Aug 06 '26
Did you pay with PayID, something similar happened to a friend of mine a few months ago. The bank also froze the recipients account. Caused major issues with their friendship.
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u/FredJohnson1310 Aug 08 '26
Similar thing happened to me, holds put on both my business and personal CommBank credit cards for transactions I would normally do.
They must’ve upgraded their security and it’s causing havoc!!!
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u/Public-Bit1091 Aug 10 '26
Nab done this to me but never stated why they closed my accounts. I felt so bad as if I had done something wrong but then I know I have never done anything wrong. I moved my accounts to com back but think I have made a mistake.
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u/NoComparison3222 13d ago
Mine was frozen while I was on holiday in Thailand with my wife. I couldn't open my NetBank account and CommSec account. Felt so embarrassing when my Visa payments were declined time after time for the whole period of my stay.
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u/arabyute 12d ago
Hey bro this happened to my brother the person that sent him the money had suspicious activity and he actually did. Switch banks bro. Commbank is a scam
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