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The regulator’s Investor Alert List contains more than 1,300 entries including unlicensed and imposter operations.
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ASIC exposes dozens of dodgy investment websites on blacklist
09 November 2023
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9 minute read
ASIC has outed 52 unlicensed investment entities and 25 impersonation websites in its latest move to prevent financial fraud.
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It said the launch of its Investor Alert List would enable consumers to check whether an investment opportunity was a scam or being run by an unlicensed operation.
ASIC deputy Sarah Court said fake or unauthorised investment opportunities caused serious financial harm as well as eroding consumer confidence.
“There are bad actors out there and while we can’t avoid being targeted, having access to the right information can help consumers better protect themselves,” she said.
“ASIC is calling on industry and consumers to assist us in identifying suspicious investment websites by reporting them to Scamwatch to assist our investigations and actions.”
ASIC said the Investor Alert List replaced the previous Companies You Should Not Deal With List and included both domestic and international entities that the regulator was concerned were offering services without the appropriate authorisation.
“ASIC will continue to add to this list, but it is not exhaustive. There will be websites or entities that do not appear on this list that may be engaging in scam behaviour of which ASIC is not aware,” it said.
Ms Court said the initial list included 52 unlicensed entities and 25 website imposter entities, which impersonated or falsely claimed to be associated with a legitimate business.
The complete list contains more than 1,300 entries and can be downloaded or searched.
ASIC will publish a series of articles as part of its Alert Investor campaign to help consumers make sound investment decisions and understand what resources are available. It has also updated its ‘Check before you invest’ page with the latest resources, registers and material to review before making investment decisions.
The Investor Alert List was part of the government’s Fighting Scams initiative to address online fraud and supported the work of the new National Anti-Scams Centre (NASC), which opened in July.
Last week ASIC revealed that since July its scam-buster technology had disabled 2,100 fake investment websites mainly offering high-risk products such as FX derivatives and crypto assets.
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