Romance Scams and Staggering Scam Losses by Australians
The numbers are staggering! Australians have lost 3.1 billion to targeted scams. Within this figure 1.5 billion was lost to investment scams, 229 million to remote access scams and 224 million to payment redirection scams. These numbers are from 2022 and most likely even higher recently and due to non-reporting of these incidents.
Unfortunately, there has been a run of romance scams where women have lost their funds to someone in a romantic relationship, they thought they could trust! Believe it or not, a large portion was superannuation which was accessed through the use of a rollover to a self-managed super fund. This structure gives very wide flexibility to the ‘trustee/ owner’ of the funds to invest pretty much as they see fit ideally within the legal rules. Not everyone understands these rules and often the inexperienced investor just picks investments that are not really suited to retirement saving. Discretionary power to your investments should be very carefully considered.
Financial independence for women and men is an important educational goal. Understanding your own financial position, earning resources and how this can help you achieve your goals is empowering. Professional guidance to assist you to achieve your goals is the role of the Financial Planner. A good start is to gain an understanding of financial matters in the operation of your own bank account and the security procedures for such.
Consider the use of travel cards with small amounts so that if one is lost or stolen you restrict the amount of loss on the card and use a second one. The same rule can go for a credit card.
Investment diversification follows the old adage of not putting all your eggs in the one basket which applies to bank accounts, cards and investments.