If you ever received a phone call offering you an excellent investment opportunity or a loan, be very cautious. The caller could be a scammer trying to take your cash. Scams come from firms operating abroad and in Australia. Australians lose millions of dollars per year to scams, and you don’t need to be another victim.

Individuals that aren’t licensed by ASIC

If the company that called you are on a list with ASIC, don’t deal with them.
Many scams come from companies based abroad. These scammers target Australians since ASIC doesn’t have international authority to investigate and prosecute them. However, ASIC can notify the regulator at the scammer’s country so the regulator may pursue those illegal actions.

If you have been called or emailed by an investment firm or offering financing by a business that’s not on the list of unlicensed companies, you should look for their name on ASIC Connect’s Professional Registers to find out if they’re licensed.

If the company or individual is not licensed, don’t deal with them and reporting them allows ASIC to frighten others.

Check abroad lists

The securities commission in their country can control overseas companies. You can check who regulates them outside of Australia by visiting the IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions) website. Then you can get in touch with the suitable overseas regulator or search its site to make sure that a company of that name is registered or licensed by them.

IOSCO’s investor alerts are where you can search for overseas companies which aren’t authorised to offer investment services in the country which has issued the warning.