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Scams, whose fault?

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I think this qualifies as the biggest "legal"scam of all time.
An airline cancelling proposed flights but still selling tickets for that flight for 2 weeks or more.
You pick a flight, pay your money but the flight will never happen and that is known before you entered the contract.

I would be throwing the biggest book I could find at Quantas for this merede.

Well worth a full read.

Qantas cancellations: ACCC taking airline to court alleging it sold tickets for planes that would never fly​

Australian consumer watchdog launches legal action against Qantas alleging it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct

Elias Visontay Transport and urban affairs reporter
Thu 31 Aug 2023 12.12 AESTFirst published on Thu 31 Aug 2023 10.06 AEST



The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will take Qantas to court alleging it was advertising and selling tickets for more than 8,000 flights that it had already cancelled in its system.
On Thursday morning, the ACCC launched action in the federal court alleging Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in advertising the flights, scheduled between May and July 2022.

During this period, the airline cancelled about 15,000 out of 66,000 domestic and international services – almost one in four flights.
The watchdog is accusing Qantas of continuing to advertise and sell 8,000 tickets on its website for an average of two weeks, and in some cases up to 47 days, after cancelling the flights.


Qantas flight credits: Albanese says customers should get another flight or their money back

Read more
The ACCC is also alleging that for more than 10,000 flights scheduled over the same period in 2022, “Qantas did not notify existing ticketholders that their flights had been cancelled for an average of about 18 days, and in some cases for up to 48 days”.

The ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said the watchdog had conducted “a detailed investigation” into Qantas’s flight cancellation practices.

“As a result, we have commenced these proceedings alleging that Qantas continued selling tickets for thousands of cancelled flights, likely affecting the travel plans of tens of thousands of people,” she said.

Qantas cancellations: ACCC taking airline to court alleging it sold tickets for planes that would never fly

Australian consumer watchdog launches legal action against Qantas alleging it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct
www.theguardian.com
 
While I have a great deal of sympathy for this lady's predicament, I am also torn between her being refunded the amount she lost and the level of her responsibility for the loss by providing the one-time code to enable scammers to access her account. To my mind, it really is a difficult one when deciding on responsibility .

Lyn Read lost $50,000 in a scam, money she needs to pay for her funeral

It was a highly sophisticated yet common scam. One that cost Lyn Read $50,000. Money the terminal cancer patient was saving for her last days and to pay for her funeral.
www.abc.net.au
 
I am glad that she has got her money back also.
But, I too think there is a case of you caused the problem in the first place.
Perhaps her illness may have cuase her to mis-judge.
 
This is off-the-wall xucking amazing. One guy effectively being the key player in monitoring all global identity thefts. WTF ??

Call out to the ABC news team on exploring such an interesting/important story. What happens if Troy falls off the perch ?

A strange sign of the times​

He’s just “a dude on the web”, but Troy Hunt has ended up playing an oddly central role in global cybersecurity.


By Julian Fell

Story Lab
Updated 23 Sep 2023, 8:42am
Published 23 Sep 2023, 4:54am
In April, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation found itself with a rather radioactive bounty on its hands.

FBI agents had seized the stolen credentials for 80 million accounts from a notorious darknet marketplace, many of which would already have been bought, sold and traded between criminals.

But, as it planned physical raids on the website’s operators, the FBI had to figure out how to alert these victims to the danger they were in.

The owners of these accounts were at serious risk of identity fraud, but who wants to receive an email from the FBI?

Instead, they gave Troy Hunt a call.

“We email backwards and forwards. Sometimes we talk on the phone,” says Troy casually. “It’s just a strange sign of the times.”

Over the course of a few days leading up to the raid, Troy and the FBI agreed on a plan to use Troy’s data breach notification service, Have I Been Pwned.

As the operation played out, the FBI transferred the bare minimum details of the 80 million compromised accounts to Troy’s server.

Then, on the appointed day, the darknet marketplace’s website was replaced by an FBI take-down notice. In the centre of the page, alongside the logos of 14 international law enforcement agencies, was the advice to visit Have I Been Pwned “to determine if you have been victimized”.

Why the FBI calls this Gold Coast man when it finds a trove of stolen data

He's just "a dude on the web", but Troy Hunt has ended up playing an oddly central role in global cybersecurity.
www.abc.net.au
 
Well not so much of a scam, as plain trusting the wrong people.

Perth financial adviser jailed for stealing clients’ super to fund gambling habit

Mark Sebo ripped off his clients to the tune of more than a million dollars, transferring the funds into personal online gambling accounts.
www.watoday.com.au
A financial adviser who stole more than a million dollars from his clients to fund a gambling habit was handed a five-year prison sentence on Friday.
Mark Raymond Sebo, 42, made 36 transactions over a 10-day period in 2019, taking money from the self-managed superannuation funds of eight different couples or individuals.
 
Happy to see the scum bag is having an all expenses paid retreat but unfortunately at our expense.
I wonder how much if any of the stolen funds can or will be returned to the unfortunates.
Does the prick actually own anything of value that could be sold off.
 
Thanks @farmerge . It would be valuable for you to start a thread on any local to you financial advisers found or alleged to be stealing the funds of the vulnerable.

ASF has a history of supporting the prosecution of dodgy financial advisers and often contributes to their further prosecution and the national debate.

See https://www.aussiestockforums.com/threads/storm-financial-group.13176/ thread which was mentioned in Parliament a number of times and contributed to a number of inquiries via mention and had over one million views on ASF.

gg
 

International criminals flew into Sydney for multimillion-dollar bank theft, police allege

Detectives found electronic devices allegedly containing a list of thousands of bank customers’ details with accompanying PIN codes.
www.smh.com.au
From the article:
Police arrested the two men and conducted a search warrant at Wolli Creek in Sydney’s south about 4.45pm Wednesday, where they say they found an active skimming device, allegedly in the process of embedding details onto nearly 1500 blank credit cards.
Police said the cards had the potential to hold approximately $3,712,500 worth of funds skimmed from ATMs.

Detectives also found electronic devices allegedly containing a list of thousands of bank customers’ details with accompanying PIN codes.

Financial Crimes Squad commander Detective Superintendent Gordon Arbinja alleged the pair came to Sydney in November last year and “got away” with $400,000 committing similar crimes.

“They returned this year, but this time we were ready for them,” Arbinja told reporters on Thursday morning.

“We’ve saved the public a lot of money here.”

Arbinja said the pair were allegedly part of a “global” criminal group that had committed skimming offences across the US, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. He alleged the pair planned to skim cards used at ATMs in Sydney CBD before draining the accounts using online methods.

“The average spent on a skimmed card is $2500 before a customer is alerted to the fact that their accounts have been compromised,” he said.

“This is alarming because it targets the vulnerable and the elderly who still rely on cash for the day-to-day activities.”
 
Great to see that the relevant polce dept is on the ball with these scum.We have been scammed of cash a couple of times via the credit card, but the bank was quick off the mark and we got it all back.
 
This story about John Margerison is a must read. How does a consummate fraudster operate ? What should we look out for when evaluating some juicy investment opportunities ?

Who is the real John Margerison? Vanished businessman leaves behind corporate maze and trail of intrigue​

Exclusive: having told parliament he’s ‘severed all ties’ with Australia, the former business associate of Stuart Robert is believed to be in Dubai


Ben Smee

@BenSmee
Sat 30 Sep 2023 01.00 AESTLast modified on Sat 30 Sep 2023 13.11 AEST


John Margerison is a marine biologist. He started a small online clothing store in Brisbane that sold surfing gear and accessories.

John Margerison is from Melbourne and “spends hours tinkering with electronics and building model rockets”. John Margerison was born and raised in the “bustling city of Sydney” where he studied engineering.

He is a marketing genius from Adelaide. The joint-owner of a Canberra-based chain of organic grocery stories. A New Zealander living in Darwin. A “fast and reliable” Gold Coast handyman. An enigma.

Who is the real John Margerison? Vanished businessman leaves behind corporate maze and trail of intrigue

Exclusive: having told parliament he’s ‘severed all ties’ with Australia, the former business associate of Stuart Robert is believed to be in Dubai
www.theguardian.com
 
What no mention of what he has achieved in WA
 
ASIC is have a hot go at scam websites. Seems as if the quality of the sites has improved. probably using AI . Will be interesting to see if they they can keep on top of these sites or they just resurface when the heat dies down.

Thousands of scam websites taken down in blitz​


Cait Kelly
Thousands of investment scam and phishing websites have been taken down as part of a crackdown by the Australian government.

Since July 2023, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) has taken down 2,100 dodgy websites offering high-risk products such as FX derivatives and crypto assets.

Australians lose more money to investment scams than any other type, with combined losses of $1.5bn last year, according to Scamwatch.

The assistant treasurer and minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, said:

Scammers are using all the tricks in the bag to con consumers – offering attractive investment returns, using fake ACNs and claiming to have Asic endorsement. It’s no surprise that even to the discerning eye these scam websites trick consumers.


We are making some serious headway in disrupting investment scams. Asic’s website takedown service is removing around 20 dodgy websites a day.

The good news – our anti-scams initiatives are working. We’re beginning to see a trend of more reporting due to better awareness, and less financial losses. The NASC [National Anti-Scam Centre] has reported a decline in losses to investment scams over the last quarter. This is a trend we’d like to see continue – but we all must stay vigilant
 
But still they 'a coming. Mobile and lap top what would we do without a delete button.
When the mood takes me I do like to give the poor barstards on the mobile phone the run a round.
 
Another huge "conservative" scam. Investing funds with solicitors for private mortgages.
Latest scam seems like it took $100m. I can recall however previous similar scams taking much more . Anyone else remember them ?

Letter from Melbourne lawyer John Adams reveals operation of alleged mortgage Ponzi scheme​

ABC Investigations
/ By Pat McGrath
Posted 2h ago2 hours ago, updated 1h ago1 hours ago

John Adams operated the investment scheme out of his law firm's office in Ivanhoe, in Melbourne's north-east.(AMS Ivanhoe Lawyers / ABC News: Kyle Harley)
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article

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A suspected Ponzi scheme that has ensnared Melbourne racing identities and a senior AFL figure was offering returns of up to 8 per cent before the sudden death of its alleged mastermind last month.

Key points:​

  • The ABC has obtained a letter showing in 2019 John Adams was offering investors returns about eight times those offered by banks for term deposits
  • Mr Adams's business partner of almost 50 years, Shane Maguire, alerted authorities to the potential fraud earlier this week
  • The Victorian Legal Services Commissioner is working with police to investigate the scheme

Some estimates have put the scale of losses in the scheme run by suburban Melbourne lawyer John Adams at $100 million – more than four times the amount high-profile Sydney con woman Melissa Caddick stole from her victims before disappearing in 2020.

The Victorian Legal Services Commissioner is now working with police to investigate claims that solicitor Mr Adams, who passed away suddenly at the age of 81 last month, misappropriated funds invested in the mortgage lending scheme he operated out of his firm's Ivanhoe office for more than 40 years.

Melbourne lawyer's suspected $100 million Ponzi scheme could dwarf Melissa Caddick fraud

A suspected Ponzi scheme that has ensnared Melbourne racing identities and a senior AFL figure was offering returns of up to 8 per cent before the sudden death of its alleged mastermind last month.
www.abc.net.au
 
We see him here, we see him there, actually we see him everywhere !!!!!!!!!!
Wow this bloke certainly gets around.
 
farmerge said:
Sir R the old saying "If it is to good to be true", then wake up
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe.. There has been a long history of lawyers borrowing funds from private investors for buyers. The story is always the same.Loans to 60% of property value. Excellent security. Better than bank interest. And probably no declaration to the Tax Office.

I imagine a number of these have been legit. However it has provided a cover for similar operations to run long term scams. They don't necessarily look too good to be true. I suspect if they have been long term loans then clients have been comfortable with steadily rising accounts of funds they don't necessarily need for week to week living.
 
Sounds like they could afford it.
It is weird that the lenders had no problems lending money at 8% to house buyers, when the banks obviously were lending at lower rates.
It's sad when any group rip off their own.
 
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