Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL), one of the dispute resolution schemes for the financial services sector, is warning consumers to be vigilant when it comes to fraud, following a noticeable increase in complaints around financial scams over the past year.
FSCL Financial Ombudsman and CEO, Susan Taylor, is highlighting a wide range of sophisticated incidents of fraud.
“Perhaps the most notable financial product [where] we are seeing more fraudulent activity is with online investment companies, often involving ‘bitcoin’ scams,” Taylor says.
FSCL is highlighting the dangers of scams to coincide with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) promoting an international fraud awareness week this week that’s designed to educate organisations, employees and consumers about ways to prevent fraud.
One case, highlighted in FSCL’s annual report this year saw a woman lose $50,000 after scammers replicated the website of an investment company.
Taylor says with most of these scams, the investor is lulled into a false sense of security, as they initially see a return on the original investment. Consumers should be alert to the possibility of scams when deciding to invest online.
“It is a fairly common scam method to tempt someone to invest more money after initially providing a good return. When the consumer invests more money, the fraudster then disappears taking the money with them,” Taylor says.
In another case, an investor complained…
