11 March 2026: Telstra today announced a major step forward in the fight against money laundering with a pioneering initiative that harnesses cross-industry intelligence to help banks better identify and stop money mules – individuals whose accounts are used to move illicit funds.

In a significant development, Quantium Telstra has expanded its collaboration within the banking sector, extending to several major Australian banks who are on board to trial a new capability. The capability is designed to help address the ongoing issue of scams, which resulted in losses exceeding $2 billion for Australians in 2024.

Participating banks so far include ANZ, NAB and Westpac who are on board alongside Telstra to contribute to the solution. Quantium Telstra is also actively engaging with other institutions to broaden collaboration.

Money mules leave behind behavioural ‘fingerprints’ – the capability helps identify unusual or suspicious patterns more likely to be associated with money mules, through a unique combination of Telstra network telemetry and banks’ own intelligence.

Money Mules – Fraud Facilitators

Money mules are crucial cogs in the cybercrime machine – individuals whose bank accounts and identities are used to move illicit funds, often at the direction of organised criminal networks.

What makes money muling difficult to detect is its ambiguity: mules can be anyone, from vulnerable people duped by job scams to seasoned fraudsters, and their activity is deliberately designed to blend in with legitimate transactions. Money mules can create a fog of financial activity that obscures the true origins and destinations of ‘dirty money’.

While many mules are complicit, for example advertising their services within criminal circles, they can also be unwitting participants, manipulated into laundering money without fully understanding their role.

A Cross Industry ‘Multiplier Effect’ to Disrupt Money Mules

Sharing intelligence is critical in the fight against persistent and increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals. It enables a ‘sum of parts’ effect where the collective contribution and access to insights creates a stronger, more adaptive defence than any single entity or sector could achieve alone. The more parties involved, the more effective it becomes.

And by providing multiple banks with a new intelligence view, the capability disrupts criminals’ ability to exploit blind spots between remitting and receiving institutions – effectively cutting off both ends of a potentially fraudulent transaction.

Early deployment of the new capability among participating banks shows that telco-derived insights has helped banks detect potential money mule activity more quickly – by as much as 90 days based on initial testing – with further enhancements to be explored as the capability continues to evolve.

CEO of Quantium Telstra, Sandy Cameron, said: “Fraud and money laundering pose serious, long-term consequences not just for people, but for the integrity of Australia’s financial system. Through innovative technology that enables us to unite intelligence, we’re able to better detect and disrupt criminal activity.”
“The collaboration has proven that telco intelligence, when securely shared and combined with bank data, can materially improve the detection of mule accounts,” Cameron added.

This latest capability builds on the experience and momentum behind Scam Indicator and Fraud Indicator, two tools developed by Quantium Telstra and launched in partnership with CBA. Conceived to help protect Australians from fraudulent transactions and identity theft in real-time, the technology similarly fuses telco intelligence with banking insights.

A Powerful Example of Telstra’s ‘Network as a Product’

A key pillar of Telstra’s Connected Future 30 strategy is focussed on making its network – including its attributes and data – consumable in new ways. The mule detection capability is a powerful example of this in action. Layering Telstra’s unique network telemetry with banks’ fraud intelligence, we’re able to unlock new insights in real-time to help financial institutions detect suspicious behaviour faster and more accurately. It’s a tangible demonstration of how Telstra is evolving the way the network is used—not just to connect, but to protect Australians and deliver meaningful value.

Looking Forward to Scale Impact

Following the successful completion of the test phase, Quantium Telstra will continue to work with the participating banks to enhance the capability and explore opportunities to implement it into banks’ fraud systems.

“The full cost of money laundering and fraud in Australia goes far beyond the money lost – it includes labour, legal and recovery costs, and erodes trust in our institutions,” Cameron said.
“With increased collaboration and advanced technology, we can make a real difference to help protect Australians and our economy from fraudulent activity.”