The minimum investment is $ZAR2 million, which is around $200,000. The fake offer also includes a capital W in Commonwealth.
“Scammers tend to tap into investment trends to lure victims. Recently that has been through cryptocurrency scams as well as fake bond scams,” CBA general manager of group fraud James Roberts told the Financial Review in a statement.
“These sophisticated scammers are also changing how they operate to appear more legitimate. While in the past investment scams have offered unrealistically high yields, today they offer more realistic returns to trick victims. They also use high-quality prospectus documents, which makes it hard for people to tell the difference.”
Aviva Investors managing director of Australia Brett Jackson said it notified the ACCC’s Scamwatch as soon as it became aware of the fraud, and are “working with Aviva Cyber & IT team to take down the fake web domains as and when they are identified/reported to us.”
Aviva and CBA have both published warnings about fake bonds on their websites.
“I would also like to advise you that the scam e-mail was offering fake bonds from ANZ, NAB as well as the Commonwealth Bank,” Aviva’s Mr Jackson said. “At present, the scammers appear to be focusing on promoting a fake Commonwealth Bond.”
The ANZ Bond scam offered a yield of 5.283 per cent with a minimum of $100,000 whereas for the NAB fake bond they were offering a yield of 6.149 per cent with a minimum investment of $250,000.
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