News

The ADF recently held our first Payments and Economic Environment Forum with a number of our education customers. The forum was well attended with over 30 attendees from a number of different colleges within the Archdiocese as well as representatives from Brisbane Catholic Education and Edmund Rice Education Australia.   The Forum was broken into two sessions, ADF in the morning and CBA presentation after lunch.

The CBA session was delivered by one of the CBA’s Senior Economists, Ryan Felsman. He spoke about the impacts global events and political climates are having on the Australian economy as well as the outlook for Australia for the next 12 months.

The ADF session was focused on the attendees, how they are supported by the ADF from both a product and service perspective and areas where additional focus or enhancements are required. This session was interactive and the feedback that the group shared has allowed the ADF to gain an insight into areas that are working well for our customers, those that should be improved and areas where additional focus and development are required.

A range of areas were identified as needing improvement and we will be working with the CBA and other partners to determine what can be achieved to enhance and improve their current offerings.

We have identified a number of target areas for the next 12 months, including:

·       Foreign currency provision

·       Prepaid debit cards

·       Do it yourself ADF Onine password resets

·       Smart Data and BPOINT reporting improvements

The ADF will provide regular feedback on progress as well as other initiatives that we continue to work on.

We would like to extend our thanks to the attendees for their participation and willingness to discuss things that are happening within their organisation now, as well as those that may occur into the future. We are extremely pleased with the success of this Forum and will be looking to add this as a regular event to the ADF calendar. If you believe your organisation would benefit from attending one of these sessions, you can register your interest now by emailing us at adf@bne.catholic.net.au

The ADF wishes to remind all customers to beware of invoice email scams as they can result in potentially large losses if not detected.

This scam involves scammers pretending to be legitimate suppliers advising changes to payment arrangements or bank account details held on file. The scammer will send an email which is disguised to appear almost identical to the legitimate suppliers’ email advising updated account information and potentially requesting payment.

How the scam works

This is quite a sophisticated scam where the scammers work very hard to make you believe the account details and payment requests are legitimate.

• Scammers hack into supplier email accounts and obtain information including customer lists, bank details and previous invoices.
• Your school or parish is then sent an email which appears as though it is from a known supplier requesting a change to the usual payment details and may also include a request for payment.
• The scammers either disguise the email address they are sending the email from or they have created a new address that appears almost identical to the legitimate one, this is called ‘spoofing’. Spoofed emails can be quite difficult to detect. For example the legitimate address is bob.smith@abctrading.com.au and the spoofed address could be bob.smith@abctrading.com or bob.smith@acbtrading.com.au
• The scam email will also often contain a copy of the suppliers logo, use the same message format and style and in some cases may even include an attachment on company letterhead which they obtained as part of their hack. It may even contain links to websites that are convincing fakes of the suppliers real website.

How to protect your school or parish

There are a number of steps that your business can take to protect yourself from scams of this nature.

• Educate your employees on this type of fraud, ways to detect potentially fraudulent emails and invoices as well as what to do if they receive one.
• Double check email addresses, if you look closely you should be able to spot a fake.
• Have a clearly defined process for verifying and payment accounts and invoices which tracks goods/services received and reconcile this to invoices.
• If you think an email you have received is suspicious, DO NOT reply. You should call the company on contact details that you already have on file or ones you have found in the phone directory, not the ones provided in the email.
• If the account details provided on the invoice or payment request are different from those used previously, call the company to confirm.

Additional information on this scam and how to protect your school or parish can be found at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/invoice-email-scam-now-targeting-australian-businesses

If you are concerned that you may have been a victim of this or any other scam, please contact the ADF immediately.

We wish to advise that due to a processing error, all inward Bpay credit transactions deposited to customer accounts on 30th January 2019 were duplicated. We have now posted reversal transactions for all duplicated transactions, these will appear in your account with a reference of Reversed Deposit. We apologise for any inconvenience this error has caused. Please contact your Relationship Manager or the ADF directly if you have any questions.

The previously advised planned maintenance has now been completed. All customers please note that ADF Online has a new web address beginning with https://adfonline.org.au/.

The ADF wishes to advise all customers be aware of a current overpayment fraud trend that is impacting Queensland businesses.

Overpayment or ‘payment in error’ fraud involves fraudsters making payments via a business’s online payment link and then contacting the business to advise an incorrect payment amount was entered or the payment was made in error and they request the funds be returned via account transfer.

How the Fraud Works

This is quite a sophisticated fraud attempt where the fraudster works hard to make you believe they made the payment in error and that they need the funds returned immediately.

• The fraudster steals credit card details and then uses these stolen credit card details to process a payment using your online payment link (BPOINT page) for a relatively large amount
• The fraudster will then email you to confirm if you received the payment, they generally don’t ask for the money back immediately as they attempt to build a rapport with you first
• When you advise that you have received it, they will then ask for you to return the funds. They will either say that they only wish to make a small payment or donation and will request the difference be returned to them via account transfer or they will say they made the payment in error and request the full amount be returned via account transfer
• They have been successful in their fraud if you return the funds via account transfer and you will then be out of pocket the amount that you transferred plus the amount of the original transaction as the issuer of the stolen credit card will also reverse the transaction from your account.

How to Protect Your School or Parish

There are a number of steps that your business can take to protect yourself from frauds of this nature.

• Ensure your staff are aware of this scam and understand how it works so they can identify it, avoid it and report it.
• Perform regular reconciliations of your BPOINT payments to ensure you can allocate all payments
• If you receive any payments that you are not expecting or the records do not match any you have on file, refund the payment immediately back onto the card via BPOINT
• As per you merchant refund policy, refunds can only be granted in the method the payment was made eg a card transaction can only be refunded back to the card
• If you receive any emails requesting an overpayment or payment made in error be refunded via account transfer, do not action it. Advise the sender that you will refund the transaction directly back to the card and process it through BPOINT immediately.
• Under no circumstances should you refund the transaction via any other method.

More details on this scam can be found at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/overpayment-scams

If you are concerned that you may have been a victim of this or any other scam, please contact the ADF immediately.

The ADF will be operating as normal in the week beginning the 13^th August 2018, including the gazetted public holiday for Brisbane city, on Wednesday 15^th August 2018.

As the majority of the 2018 direct debits have been received and loaded by the ADF, we recommend that you now review all your direct debits via ADF Online to ensure there are no duplications. Reviewing your debits will ensure that none have been duplicated, which would result in parents being debited twice for payments.

If you locate any duplications, please email directdebits@bne.catholic.net.au with the details of the authority to be cancelled, including the A# number.

Any questions, please contact the ADF on 3324 3777.

The ADF wishes to advise all customers to beware of an invoice email scam that is currently targeting Queensland businesses.

This scam involves scammers pretending to be legitimate suppliers advising changes to payment arrangements or bank account details held on file. The scammer will send an email which is disguised to appear almost identical to the legitimate suppliers’ email advising updated account information and potentially requesting payment.

How the scam works

This is quite a sophisticated scam where the scammers work very hard to make you believe the account details and payment requests are legitimate.

– Scammers hack into supplier email accounts and obtain information including customer lists, bank details and previous invoices.
– Your school or parish is then sent an email which appears as though it is from a known supplier requesting a change to the usual payment details and may also include a request for payment.
– The scammers either disguise the email address they are sending the email from or they have created a new address that appears almost identical to the legitimate one, this is called ‘spoofing’. Spoofed emails can be quite difficult to detect. For example the legitimate address is bob.smith@abctrading.com.au and the spoofed address could be bob.smith@abctrading.com or bob.smith@acbtrading.com.au
– The scam email will also often contain a copy of the suppliers logo, use the same message format and style and in some cases may even include an attachment on company letterhead which they obtained as part of their hack. It may even contain links to websites that are convincing fakes of the suppliers real website.

How to protect your school or parish

There are a number of steps that your business can take to protect yourself from scams of this nature.
1. Ensure your staff are aware of this scam and understand how it works so they can identify it, avoid it and report it.
2. Double check email addresses, if you look closely you should be able to spot a fake.
3. Have a clearly defined process for verifying and payment accounts and invoices which tracks goods/services received and reconcile this to invoices.
4. If you think an email you have received is suspicious, DO NOT reply. You should call the company on contact details that you already have on file or ones you have found in the phone directory, not the ones provided in the email.
5. If the account details provided on the invoice or payment request are different from those used previously, call the company to confirm.

More details on this scam can be found at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/invoice-email-scam-now-targeting-australian-businesses

If you are concerned that you may have been a victim of this or any other scam, please contact the ADF immediately.

Cheque usage and acceptance in Australia has dramatically reduced over a number of years due to faster, more user friendly and secure payment methods being available.

As part of the ADF’s payment technology strategy, we are actively encouraging the closure of cheque facilities and promoting alternative payment methods including EFT, BPAY and Corporate cards. Whilst we have not set a timeframe for the closure of all cheque accounts, our Relationship Managers will begin talking to their customers regarding alternative payment options available to them and the closure of their cheque accounts over the coming months. We will continue to work with our customers to ensure that they have the best payment methods available to meet their needs.

If you would like to discuss your cheque account or alternative payment methods, please contact your Relationship Manager or the ADF.

The ADF office is relocating from 194 Charlotte St, Brisbane to Cathedral House, Level 6, 229 Elizabeth St, Brisbane from 25 September, 2017.

This will mean a more centralised location for our Archdiocesan Departments at Cathedral House.
We endeavour to have our operations and calls to be business as usual on Monday 26th September but please be patient while we settle in and we look forward to you popping in and visiting us!