Mutual banks and credit unions across Australia are hosting free community education sessions this week as part of the national Scams Awareness Week, running from 24 to 28 August, with several more events planned into September.
Australians made 91,767 reports to Scamwatch in the first six months of 2026, with $156.6 million reported stolen — and when combined with reports made to law enforcement through ReportCyber, total reported losses reached $554.1 million across 122,550 reports, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre. While the number of reports fell 11% year-on-year, reported losses rose 1% over the same period.
The Mutual Bank is holding a morning session in Maitland, NSW, on 26 August, while Hume Bank is running an after-hours forum at its Olive Street branch in Albury on 27 August. Bank Orange will hold its annual community safety forum in Orange on 7 September.
The events form part of a broader push by the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA), the peak body representing mutual banks, credit unions, and building societies, to strengthen scam protections as fraud tactics grow more sophisticated. This year's campaign theme is "No one should be a number".
COBA CEO Michael Lawrence (pictured) said the financial and emotional toll of scams extends well beyond individual victims.
"Scams have a devastating impact on the people and communities our sector serves. Behind every dollar lost is a heartbreaking story, and these losses can ripple through entire towns, affecting local businesses, families, community investment and jobs," Lawrence said.
He said in-person education remains central to the industry's approach.
"Customer-owned banks also have a long-standing commitment to educating their customers and meeting people where they are. Through in-person education and local scam-awareness events, they are helping everyday Australians build the practical tools, knowledge and confidence to stay safe," Lawrence said.
All COBA members signed on to the wider banking industry's Scam-Safe Accord in November 2023, and Lawrence said member institutions have since continued investing in data-sharing tools and detection technology. He pointed to the close, local relationships customer-owned banks maintain with their members as a distinct advantage in spotting fraud early.
"Strong local connections mean customer-owned banks are often well placed to notice subtle changes in behaviour and step in early when something appears unusual," Lawrence said.
The scam push comes weeks after COBA received the final report of an independent review into its Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice, which recommended a tighter set of consumer-protection rules covering financial hardship, customer vulnerability, and the use of automated decision-making for the mutuals sector's code subscribers.
COBA is also directing consumers to the National Anti-Scam Centre's guidance to stop, check and protect themselves before acting on suspicious requests, and to report incidents to Scamwatch.
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