“You looked beautiful at the train station this morning.”

This might look like an innocent message – welcome, and thoughtful, even. But what if it came from someone you were afraid of? And what if that message was delivered in a way you never expected – not a text or an email, but through your bank?

CommBank was the first Australian bank to discover this perpetrator tactic in 2019. This was when they realised one of their customers was receiving online payments of less than a dollar from a former partner – all with abusive messages in the transaction description field.   

“Now this was news to us,” says CommBank Group Customer Advocate, Angela MacMillan. “We’d never thought that our services could or would be used in that way… We were incredibly uneasy about whether or not this was happening to other customers, so we looked into it – and what we saw horrified us. 

“[They don’t] necessarily always appear abusive to an observer, but can be very threatening in the context of an abusive relationship.”

In late 2019, CommBank conducted an internal review and found that, in just the three months prior, customers received more than 8,000 abusive messages in transaction descriptions. Since 2020, CommBank has used an automated filter to block over one million abusive transactions from being sent, while other major banks have followed suit. 

In trying to understand why perpetrators use this avenue for abuse, FW spoke with Tara Hunter, Director of Client and Clinical Services at leading domestic and family violence response and recovery service, Full Stop Australia. 

“One of the things we know about coercive, controlling behaviour is that it’s often a range of different tactics to intimidate, to harass, to create that sense of fear – but also that ever-presence,” says Hunter.  

“There’s this sense of ‘where will this end?'”

“There are two ways in which [this form of financial abuse] works. It’s sending abusive, threatening messages – and then there’s that harassment piece. We hear stories of people making multiple one cent or two cent transactions as a means of just harassing and intimidating someone.”  

While phone numbers and social media accounts can be blocked, this thread of connection might need to stay intact. As part of a system like child support, money transfers could even be required of a perpetrator. 

“They might think, ‘I can’t get breached for my AVO [apprehended violence order] if I send a bank transaction, because I need to’,” says Hunter.  “[A victim-survivor] might have gone through family law processes … and then this starts. So there’s this sense of, ‘where will this end?’” 

As MacMillan and the team at CommBank discovered, abuse in transaction descriptions doesn’t always feature obviously threatening language that would look sinister to others. One year after launching its automated block, CommBank rolled out an AI model to detect more nuanced instances of abuse. 

“It helps us identify some of those more insidious messages, or messaging patterns and behaviours that are then reviewed by our Next Chapter team, who take action when needed,” says MacMillan. 

“Now, on average, we’re reviewing over 1,500 cases per year with consequences for individuals we deem to be potentially perpetrating financial abuse against others – and we only take action after speaking with those affected to ensure their consent, following a victim-centred approach.”

This is one way that CommBank Next Chapter is working to support victim-survivors. The Next Chapter team provides free confidential support and specialist referrals for all Australians impacted by financial abuse, regardless of who they bank with.  

As we’ve explored in our Behind Closed Doors series, when abuse plays out in subtle, manipulative tactics, it can be hard to spot. “This kind of behaviour – because of the context of how it’s delivered – is minimised,” says Hunter.   

Which is why listening to the experiences of victim-survivors – and watching out for one another – can make all the difference.