Fraud: all aboard for the Aussie 419 express

Australia's securities and investment regulator ASIC has issued a reminder that as much as AUD500 million is languishing in its coffers, having been passed to it by banks and other financial institutions who were taken over in 2007. The orphaned funds ranges from AUD1 to AUD3 million.

‘While we’ve successfully returned more than AUD36 million to its rightful owners over the past six months, we’ve recently added another 33,994 records worth around AUD151.2 million’, said ASIC’s Senior Executive Leader, Consumers and Retail Investors, Mrs Delia Rickard.

But the scheme is a potential gold-mine for advance fee fraudsters. The pot of unclaimed money is a perfect incentive to issue millions of emails claiming to be a claims agent, possibly backed by a spoof website.

The invitation to claim via ASIC will prove too tempting for scam artists to ignore. And there are many people who may benefit: "

‘Last year’s awareness campaign resulted in one Australian being reunited with over AUD742,000. Unfortunately, most Australians haven’t checked to find out if they too have unclaimed money," says Rickard.

Already, companies have publicised a service of negotiating with ASIC on behalf of individuals - a service that Rickard says is pointless as searching the ASIC record is free. But so far, no widespread advance fee fraud - which involves claiming a fee for work that is not performed - has emerged.

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The Anti Money Laundering Network

www.antimoneylaundering.net