Salesperson or scammer: how you can tell them apart

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No matter how thoroughly you screen your calls, there's always one cold-calling salesperson who slips through the cracks.

Fortunately, some cold calls really are genuine companies just trying to get in touch.

But sometimes the person on the other end of the line won't have your best interests at heart.

phone scam scammer scams predator

Getting conned by a financial predator or scammer could cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars (even more for property scams), so if you've been approached by someone you don't quite trust, be sure to look them up in Australian Securities and Investments Commission's unlicensed companies list before you take them seriously.

If it's a government body that doesn't sound legitimate, you can also check ASIC's list of fake regulators and exchanges. If the name isn't on the list, you can search for the company on ASIC's professional registers list to make sure it's licensed.

Don't deal with a company or individual that doesn't have a financial licence. Instead, report them to ASIC via its website. If you think you've been contacted by a foreign company, you can check if it's registered overseas by visiting the the International Organisation of Securities Commissions website.

Recently added to ASIC's unlicensed companies list: AIM Corporation Ltd, PWRTrade/GN Capital, Hedgestone Group, Tain Capital, MBA Capital Ltd, Safe Mark Ltd, PlusOption, Umarkets, Amber Capital Partners, Capital Strategy Partners, Binary Uno, Fast Cash Biz, Futures Trading Standards Commission and Yamanashi Asset Management.

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Steph Nash was a staff writer at Money until 2017.
Comments
Wenxing George Tam
September 22, 2018 3.11am

the guy from umarkets.com is aggressively calling all the time. Found out they are offshore company https://55brokers.com/umarkets... I didn't deposit.