Scam Warning for Over-50's
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned that the over-55s are now particularly vulnerable to scammers pushing bogus investment and superannuation schemes. The alert came as the ACCC released new data this week revealing rip-offs from confidence tricksters are costing us annually at least $229 million.
The commission’s deputy chair Delia Rickard says one reason for the growth of cons around business ventures, managed funds and shares transactions was low interest rates. “Retirees or those approaching retirement are really concerned about how they can grow their retirement fund, so we think that may be making them more vulnerable to scams,” she said.
While there are plenty of high-volume and low-gain scams which can net hundreds of dollars the threat is growing from more sophisticated operations where the sting can be measured in tens of thousands.
The superannuation system, which gives older citizens sometimes large sums to invest later in their lives, also makes Australia a honeypot for the criminals preying on the gullible and unlucky.
While the investment scams ramp up year on year older Australians are not immune from the older tricks in the book such as romance and dating site trickery. Dating and investment scams account for one half of the millions lost by the over-55 and 40% of all scam losses were suffered by the same demographic. For dating alone that amounted to $5.6 million in reported losses.
The average loss is $8,000 but eight people were ripped off by more than $1million each in 2015 and given under-reporting due to shame and not realising there’s been a crime the losses may well be much higher.
Most of the time the villains are overseas but reportedly the majority of dating scams come from Nigeria and Malaysia while financial scams often originate from Asia.
So what to do? The ACCC recommends anyone who feels they are being fished for business check out the company on the ASIC’s MoneySmart website to ensure they have the necessary Australian Financial Services Licence.
For good advice on scams and how to avoid them visit the ACCC’s https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/
And don't forget to check out our 'Saver's Guide to Surviving Record-Low Interest Rates'
