The FinancialAs detailed in recent announcements from Scamwatch, a part of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and reported by FinanceFeeds Australian citizens lost over $48 million in the first 9 months of 2019 alone to fraudulent investment schemes.
This is an astonishing number in our opinion, considering the likely high level of financial awareness of Australian citizens as compared to some other countries, where FX and CFD trading is also popular. Likewise, these figures raise questions regarding the effectiveness of investor protections, such as public warnings and sanctions against unregulated firms that are issued by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
One thing is for sure, stamping out fraudulent brokers and investment schemes has proven to be difficult in any jurisdiction around the world. Which is why Financial Commission launched the ‘Check Your Broker’ directory, so that traders can check the status of the firm they wish to trade with before depositing funds into their trading account with a broker.