2015 Targeting Scams Report
This is the report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to
coincide with National Fraud (awareness) Week last
week.
They report that $229 Million was lost, with investment scams leading any
other category with $41 million reported lost.
You can find the 81 page report in pdf form here
Plenty of nice statistics about what’s happened in the last year, but more
importantly:
What are Scamwatch, ACCC and other Authorities doing about it ?!
Well, in 2015 the ACCC’s Disruption project seems to have been solely aimed
at disrupting Romance fraud. Good on them for doing something, but what about
Investment fraud which has now surpassed Romance fraud ( maybe partly due to
their disruption efforts)?
Nothing as far as we can tell. Most of their time seems to be taken up with
compiling statistics.
Getting information out of them is like getting blood out of a stone. Our
offers for them to use our resources seem to fall on deaf ears.
ACCC’s bad advice
In their website report here, they end up giving advice on doing due diligence on
your next investment.
“Before parting with your money, do your own research on the investment
company and check they have a Australian Financial Services Licence on ASIC’s
MoneySmart website.”
and “Only invest your money with a managed fund or other investment that is
licensed by ASIC and check ASIC’s MoneySmart website.
This advice would seem to imply that it is a sufficient that a business,
company or financial advisor is listed with ASIC with an ABN, ACN or
AFSL.
Well that is just plain WRONG.
It is NOT a sufficient check.
As hundreds of scam victims will tell you, ALL the companies, businesses and
financial advisors they dealt with in Australia were listed with ASIC.
We called the ACCC and voiced our concerns that this advice is very unsound
and makes them negligent in their duties. To date, no response.
What do you think?
Well I am not surprised or even amazed, I expected nothing more from this report. After having been taken by an investment scam, I did do my due diligence, one company had everything in order, complete with AFSL (hell banks have those and they are the biggest financial criminals going), I reported my loss to ACCC, ASIC and finally the Police, via the ACORN site. Who acted onit? The Qld Police. ASIC informed me it wasn’t in their jurisdiction, ACCC, dead silence, I guess my complaint is just another stat. Perhaps if ACCC can show an increase in stats with complaints regarding fraud, they can milk more money from the public purse to do what they do best. I’m glad they have done something finally about Romance Fraud, but even blind Freddy can see where the big $ are disappearing. QPOL have a massive work load as the fraud squad is under manned for the case load, 6 officers full time for over 1500 cases. BUT, someone had the bright idea to transfer officers out of the FCCG to the CCC. Must be a bigger political issue ( just my opinion). As I have said in the past, ACCC & ASIC are toothless tigers.
The ACCC, ASIC and every state Consumer Affairs Departments are the reason why Organised Crime flourishes especially in the State of Queensland.
Hundreds of thousands of reported fraud cases were never investigated – figures are available from the recent Commission into Organised Crime.
ASIC has had numerous reports dating back nearly ten years where people now before the courts were running open scams that ASIC and the ACCC ignored.
Maybe like the mafia, these Organised Crime Gangs donated to the political parties – there is no other excuse for ignoring Organised Crime that has scammed hundreds of millions of dollars from Australian citizens.
Our group alone put in hundreds of complaints to ASIC and the ACCC and never got a response to any of them other than the standard reply.
Gross incompetence.
It was only the work of a few decent coppers in Queensland that forced the issue. Even the police ignored many tens of thousands of legitimate complaints and REFUSED to investigate.
Anyone who complained loudly was belittled by the heirachy of the Queensland Fraud Squad – thankfully the NEW fraud squad although still underfunded actually appears to be doing something.
Of course the Queensland courts are WELL KNOWN for very strange decisions – see the latest Peter Foster case where he was allowed out of gaol early and the judge refused to give reasons for going soft on a career criminal. Foster then APPARANTLY put a hit on the PI that bought him undone (Ken Gamble) – great work Queensland Courts.
Bet the dirty money is flowing from the Organised Crime gangs straight to the decision makers. This will be the next major investigation.
Would also point out that instead of a Royal Commission into the banks the Governmnet is giving more money to ASIC to investigate – WHAT A COMPLETE JOKE – ASIC is completely unworkable and unaccountable