11th May 2006 
 
There is evidence of serious and organised crime in the financial sector and it is likely to grow unless the non-reporting culture changes according to Tony Rankine, Detective Superintendent and former Officer in Charge of Commercial and E-Crime Branch, South Australia Branch.  
 
Detective Superintendent Rankine presented his warning today to a group of local business people at the Institute of Chartered Accountants Business Forum in Adelaide.  
 
He said fraud was likely to become more attractive to criminals because it is low risk/high reward and because of Australia’s business culture of non-reporting.  
 
“Most detected fraud is identified through internal processes. However, the capability of law enforcement to effectively respond is frustrated by a culture of non-reporting”, he said.  
 
Detective Superintendent Rankine said the South Australian Commercial and E-Crime Branch was only notified of approximately 5% of fraudulent activity which takes place within the financial sector.  
 
While fraud detection techniques have improved, so have fraudsters. They are aware of the new techniques being used and they too have become more sophisticated in their approach.  
 
As an example, the South Australian Commercial and E-Crime Branch has seen counterfeit credit cards manufactured by criminals using data obtained from legitimate cards, which is then encoded on the counterfeit card.  
 
“Commercial and e-crimes are a significant concern which must be stopped. To put the scope of the problem into context, over $1.3million dollars has left South Australia on Nigerian-based scams alone - that’s just highlighting one type of scam,” Detective Superintendent Rankine said.  
 
“There is clear evidence that this type of offending is enabling other criminal activities and I predict an increasing reliance, by organised criminals, on the financial sector to fund their crimes.  
 
“Fraud and e-crime is sometimes seen as a victimless crime yet it destroys people’s lives”, he said.  
 
Detective Superintendent Rankine called on his audience to do their bit in helping the Police fight this type of crime by being more diligent in reporting instances of crime.