Financial Crime
The Australian Government's Response to Fraud
The Australian Government has developed a multi-faceted national strategy to combat fraud, in particular banking sector fraud.
Consumer Fraud
The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce was established in June 2005 to provide a whole of Government approach to raising awareness about consumer fraud. AGD is an active member of this Taskforce.
Common Types of Consumer Fraud: (More information on Types of Fraud)
Cold calling
Cold calling is simply an unexpected phone call - out of the blue - or even an email, offering you some kind of opportunity.
Phishing
"Phishing" is a technique used to gain personal information for purposes of identity theft, using fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses or financial institutions.
Spam
Spam is the common term for electronic 'junk mail' – unwanted commercial electronic messages. There is currently legislation in Australia to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.
Spyware
Spyware is software that is installed on a computing device that takes information from it without the consent or knowledge of the user, and gives that information to a third party.
Links
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is responsible for enforcing the Spam Act 2003. ACMA has a developed an online tool to report spam.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) provides advice about scams and how to report them.
Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) is responsible for investigating high tech crime in Australia.
Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) investigates scams relating to financial services such as phishing
Scamwatch – Official website of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce. Provides information on scams and what to look out for.
Bribery of Foreign Public Officials is a crime
Corruption undermines fair competition and can have disastrous consequences for developing economies, ultimately shrinking the global market for Australian exports and investment.
The Australian Government works on a number of fronts to fight bribery and corruption both here and overseas. This approach helps support better governance and legal systems. It also helps improve Australia's investment opportunities overseas and is an important aspect of our excellent global reputation as a corruption-free trading partner.
Proceeds of Crime
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was passed on 11 October 2002 and came into operation on 1 January 2003.
The Act provides a scheme to trace, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime against Commonwealth Law. In some circumstances it can also be used to confiscate the proceeds of crime against foreign law or the proceeds of crime against State law (if those proceeds have been used in a way that contravenes Commonwealth law).
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)
The aim of most criminal activity is to generate a profit. Money laundering is the processing of the profits of crime to disguise their illegal origin. This allows criminals to enjoy their ill-gotten gains without revealing the source of the money, or to re-invest their profits in more criminal activity.
Measures that hinder money laundering can help prevent organised crime by making the profits of such crime more difficult to use. Additionally, it is often the connections made through financial transaction records that allow criminals and their activities to be detected.