Investors reluctant to report fraud
Investors need convincing to report an investment fraud, warned the executive director of the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) Dr David Lacey.
Speaking at the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia conference, Lacey told delegates that most victims found it hard to report that they had been a victim of investment fraud, even when there were officers pushing them to do so and telling them they had been taken in by fraud schemes.
Everyone involved in financial services could have a role in combating fraud, Lacey told the audience.
Organised crime was targeting the SMSF sector, and there was a need for the ACC to make the industry more hardened to investment fraud targeting, he said.
Lacey warned that fraud was difficult to detect, even by the most experienced investors.
Nearly 50 to 60 per cent of fraud victims were repeat victims, and a segment of those victims were self-managed super fund trustees, he said.
The ACC sees the threat from organised crime as an extension of the risk in markets, he said.
Investment fraud was not an opportunistic crime, but a calculated and sophisticated crime, Lacey warned.
Fraudsters know a lot of information about the investors they target before they contact them, he said.
They know how much money the investor has to invest, roughly what they invest in, what their asset profile is, their family circumstances, and what their address is, he said.
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