Identity Theft !

It is obvious that criminal networks that span the world are taking advantage of this Coronavirus emergency to ply their trade. On April 20 the Federal government implemented a measure to allow those suffering financial hardship to access up to twenty thousand dollars of their superannuation over two years.  Very quickly over  half a million applications for early withdrawal were  received and approved by the ATO , averaging at $8000.

Now we learn that financial fraud has stolen about $120,000 from a hundred and fifty superannuation accounts and the robbers are sophisticated offshore criminals who specialise in schemes to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing things like their birth date and tax file number.  With that information, they are well placed to masquerade as the policyholder and pass through the checks put in place by the ATO.

One of the tricks used is a phone call in which the caller represents himself as a legal attorney trying to trace the beneficiary of a deceased estate.  He asks if you are - and gives your full name - that person born on a claimed birth date ?   Of course you respond you are not that person, and often quote your own birth date in passing, and that is a fatal error.

Another favourite of the tricksters is a canvassing phone call promoting a financial service which offers substantial benefits at a very low price. This could be a funeral plan or membership of a health fund offering an attractive  payment plan.  The caller warns that criminal elements may try to steal your benefit  and seeks some sort of personal identification.  To many a tax file number would not be an unusual solution to that problem.

Overseas criminal gangs pay well for this type of information gleaned by local specialists who rob mail boxes at private homes for information.  Banks and government departments used to adorn envelopes with symbols that advertised their nature but that has changed to plain envelopes that give no hint of the likely contents.  The mail system is a rich source of the information that will allow a fraudster to assume the identity of a victim in accruing debt in their name.

It is encouraging that almost a million payments had been successfully completed in these early days of the withdrawal scheme and loss is attributed to only a hundred and fifty instances of fraud. An intense investigation is under way and policyholders are urged to be extremely cautious in guarding the information that may be used in identity theft.

Whether that stolen money will be reimbursed is not yet clear.