Online Investment Scams

We're aware of an increased risk of online investment scams which have surfaced over the past few months.
The ACCC has found that of the $2 billion lost to investment scams, a majority was lost through investment scams.

We’re providing the following information to ensure our Colonial First State (CFS) Investment clients understand the risks of investment scams and know how to handle it if they encounter one.

What are we doing to protect our CFS Investment clients?
We have several procedures in place to ensure that fraudulent transactions or actions do not occur on your account:

1. We are unable to transact on your account without signed permission. This is a protection at both the fund level (CFS) and our level (Evergreen) to ensure all transactions are in your best interest and at your will.
2. We do not action anything until we have confirmed the authenticity of the communication. We compare any communications against our records of your email address and phone number. Any communications coming from other addresses or numbers need to be confirmed before we proceed with getting signatures.
3. We confirm withdrawals with you. If we notice that a withdrawal has been made on your account which we did not facilitate, we notify you to verify you initiated it and to detect fraudulent transactions early.

What is CFS doing to protect their investors?
CFS has several methods. 

1. Withdrawals can only be made to your bank account. CFS will not process withdrawals unless you have provided them a signed document with your bank details in addition to the above withdrawal form.
2. Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). CFS has MFA on both their app and online portal to prevent fraudulent actions.
3. Secure online portal. We cannot submit your signed requests to CFS via email. Instead, we utilise a secure online portal that is protected by MFA. This prevents other parties attempting to transact on your account.

Why are these protections important?
Each of these elements ensure that a signed form is not the only protection against fraudulent actions, but instead the first of many fail safe measures designed to keep your money safe.

What you can do

1. Verify that correspondence you receive from CFS is legitimate.
   1. CFS will never:
      1. Ask for your account details over email.
      2. Ask you to make a withdrawal.
      3. Ask for bank details.
      4. Reach out via social media.
      5. Reach out over a secure messaging service such as Signal or Telegram.
   2. Verify:
      1. That the email is coming from CFS's official domain.
      2. That the call is coming from CFS's official number.
   You can check the MoneySmart website to verify if the email or website is a reported imposter.
2. Verify that Evergreen correspondence is coming from us.
   1. Ensure that the email is coming from our domain [email protected].
   2. Ensure all calls are coming from (07) 4766 9688.
3. Reach out to us if you ever have any doubts about the authenticity of any messages or calls.
4. Ensure MFA is active on all accounts, including your email if available.
5. If you think you have been scammed, contact your bank immediately, notify the relevant authorities, and let us know so we can assist with next steps.

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If you believe you have encountered a bad actor or fraudulent scheme please report them to the following authorities.

• Scam Watch
• Fraud Prevention
• Report a crime