Criminal networks seek to exploit vulnerable members of the community. They target and recruit them as money mules to launder their proceeds of crime and reintegrate the funds back into the economy. This creates distance between the networks and the crime, and helps to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Child sexual exploitation is a heinous crime that extends across borders and adversely impacts victims and communities. It is a form of child abuse where offenders and facilitators use their power, either physical, financial or emotional, over a child or young person to sexually or emotionally abuse them. Child sexual exploitation for financial gain involves a child being coerced or manipulated into engaging in forced sexual activity for financial benefit.
This guide provides indicators and behaviours to help financial service providers, particularly those engaged in trade financing, to detect and report suspicious financial activity.
International trade is an attractive avenue for criminals as it presents risks and vulnerabilities that they can exploit. Criminals engaged in trade-based money laundering use the trade of goods and services to move illicit money into and out of Australia and around the world.
This guide provides financial indicators to help businesses, including digital currency exchange providers, recognise and report criminal activity through digital currencies.
Digital currencies are increasing in value and acceptance as Australians have rapidly taken up this new technology. Digital currencies and blockchain technology enable digital transactions and financial products and services in new online networks, environments and marketplaces.
This financial crime guide includes practical information and key indicators to help your business understand, identify and report suspicious activity where someone could be the target of a ransomware payment, or trying to profit from a ransomware payment.
Cybercriminals try to infect a computer or network, and then demand a ransom payment to unlock or decrypt the victim’s computer system. These attacks can disrupt businesses and critical services, and cost significant time and resources to recover from.
This financial crime guide will help businesses identify and report suspicious activity related to forced sexual servitude. Forced sexual servitude is a form of slavery and represents around 30% of slavery cases in Australia.
Victims are forced to provide sexual services against their will, are unable to refuse violent or unsafe practices, and must hand over most – if not all – of their money to the perpetrators. It is a lucrative business for criminals, who make significant profits through this criminal activity.
This guide provides financial indicators to help financial services businesses to detect and report potential fraud and misuse of taxpayer funds through Services Australia administered emergency and disaster payments.
This guide provides financial indicators to help financial service providers to target, detect and disrupt criminal communication or abuse through payment text fields.
Organised criminals use ‘cuckoo smurfing’ as a method of laundering money to disguise and integrate their funds across borders to profit from and further enable their illegal activities.
Generally this method of money laundering relies on exploiting the bank accounts of customers expecting to receive legitimate funds. These customers are often unaware that the funds transferred into their accounts are the proceeds of crime.
To protect Australia’s financial system against exploitation, AUSTRAC’s Fintel Alliance has developed this financial crime guide on cuckoo smurfing.
This financial crime guide will help the financial services sector to identify, monitor and report suspected fraud against the NDIS.