Australia faces a growing identity theft problem, with nearly 200,000 victims reported in the last financial year¹, a 25% increase on the year before2.

Once stolen, sensitive identity details often end up on the dark web, where they can be exploited by criminals to fraudulently access bank accounts, or take out credit cards, personal loans, telco contracts, or other products in someone’s name.

How Truyu works

The first product of its kind in Australia, Truyu alerts users in real-time when their name, date of birth and driving licence or passport details are used online at major Australian merchants, asking them to confirm via the app whether it was a legitimate use of those credentials.

In the event of identity misuse, Truyu provides helpful links and remediation prompts to help customers secure their information as efficiently as possible and avoid additional harm or loss.

To receive ID usage alerts, users need to be aged 18 or more and have a valid Australian driver's licence or Australian Passport.

Data breach alerts

In addition to ID usage alerts, Truyu also notifies users if an email address registered with the app has been exposed in a data breach, giving them proactive guidance to help enhance their online security.

The Truyu app, which took a team inside x15 five months to build, is now in pilot with early customers to test the proposition and collect feedback.

x15’s Managing Director, Toby Norton-Smith, said:

“Tackling the financial, emotional, and social impacts of identity fraud is an important issue, and we’re proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in our first five months. As the first service of its kind in Australia, there is tremendous value in getting Truyu into the hands of customers quickly, so we can learn at pace and see if what we’ve built is the right solution. We believe cross-industry collaboration on fraud and scams will yield the greatest impact and look forward to sharing what we learn with government and industry.”

Operating in a secure but separate environment to the Bank, x15’s platform model means it can leverage the latest technology and spin up small, agile teams to explore new propositions, while still accessing the support of experts in CommBank. By building in this way – digital first but with bank-grade standards – x15 can fast-track its ventures’ growth via technology integrations with Australia’s largest bank.

The Australian-first technology underpinning Truyu’s ID usage alerts was developed in partnership with GBG, a global specialist in digital identity.

Truyu is available to download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

All Truyu features will be free to use during the three-month pilot. Access to premium features, like ID usage alerts, will require a $4.99 a month subscription once the pilot ends.