International fraudsters have set up dozens of fake investment websites aimed at luring in Australians with the promise of stable investments from fully guaranteed and regulated bonds to whisky and a listing of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.has found a syndicate operating investment scams that has already worked its way through the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and is now increasing its attention on Australia.
Investors wary of economic uncertainty, and feeling the pain of falling technology company share prices, are searching out assets which provide a stable income, such as bonds. Some of the sites promise 8.1 per cent per annum yields, and that the bonds are fully guaranteed and regulated.shared a selection of likely scam webpages that were appearing prominently within search rankings with cybersecurity firm CyberCX.
Calls to AusBondTrust and Au-Investor, which had the same number, were answered by a call-back service.The sites have disclaimers that they are not authorised or regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, financial products – of which bonds are included – cannot be sold to Australians without regulatory oversight from ASIC.
The matches link to Russia-linked ransomware group DarkSide, which provides ransomware-as-a-service . The DarkSide ransomware group was responsible for the Colonial Pipeline Company ransomware incident in May 2021. A search of Spain’s corporate regulator – Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores – revealed no such company.
The syndicate is not just targeting bond investors, it has branched out into other investment scams. Thealso found a further site, Investorleads.eu, claiming to be the trading company for London Choice Investments, encouraging investors to sign up to brokerages.