28 January 2021
- Scammers are sending fake, professional-looking prospectuses that offer unrealistically high returns.
- ob体育 is aware of two such scam operations targeting investors in Australia and overseas.
- Investors can check听ob体育鈥檚 Offer Notice Board听to see if a prospectus relates to a recent offer registered with us.
ob体育 is warning investors of a rise in impostor bond-investment offers. Scammers pretend to be associated with well-known domestic and international financial service firms and offer high-yield bond investments to investors. ob体育 has recently become aware of two such scam operations targeting investors in Australia and others in countries such as the UK.
In many circumstances, the scam occurs after the investor completes an online enquiry form expressing interest in receiving investment advice, often via a third party or comparison site.
Common tactics deployed by scammers include:
- sending professional-looking fake prospectuses with unrealistically high returns
- falsely stating the bonds are issued by prominent financial services firms when this is not true and there is no underlying investment
- falsely claiming investor funds will be pooled to invest in government bonds or the bonds of companies with AAA credit ratings
- falsely claiming the purchase price of the bonds is protected under the Commonwealth Governments Financial Claims Scheme
- using contact details gathered online through fake investment comparison websites to call people and pressure them to invest or risk 鈥榤issing out鈥�.
Take these steps before investing
- 颁丑别肠办听ob体育鈥檚 Offer Notice Board听to see if a prospectus relates to a recent offer registered with us.
- 颁丑别肠办听听to make sure any party promoting or issuing the financial product is licensed or is authorised by a licensee.
- Check ob体育鈥檚听.
- Check the main website (i.e. the homepage) of the purported issuer of the bonds to see if there are any alerts about imposter scams.
- Seek independent financial advice.
Think you have been scammed?
If you think you or someone you know has been scammed,听lodge a report of misconduct with ob体育听and report the matter to police. You can also make a report to the Australian Cyber Security Centre at听. Your report may disrupt the scammers and hopefully will warn others to avoid it.
More information
For more information about听, visit ob体育鈥檚 Moneysmart website or read ob体育鈥檚 media release (21-010MR ob体育 warns investors of imposter bond scams).
ob体育 is Australia鈥檚 corporate, markets and financial services regulator.