Media Release by The Hon Larry Anthony MP

Little Black Book of Scams

The Federal Minister for Community Services, Larry Anthony, today launched a new, free publication, designed to help older Australians avoid becoming the victims of rorts or scams.

Mr Anthony is launching the book on behalf of the Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, Mr Joe Hockey.

“The Little Black Book of Scams: A Consumer’s Guide to Scams, Swindles, Rorts and Rip offs has been written to particularly alert older, more vulnerable members of our community to scams which often target older Australians,” Mr Anthony said.

Mr Anthony said the booklet describes the many frauds, scams, rorts and rip offs used by swindlers to gain trust and acceptance and ways that consumers can protect their hard-earned dollars.

“The book details current popular scams include those involving household repairers, pyramid sales like the ‘Plane Game‘, chain letters and fraudulent lottery tickets,” he said.

“Many Australians have already lost money in these scams and schemes, including the notorious Nigerian Letter Scam, which asks for money or bank details to be sent to that country, as well as new or updated versions of older scams which have been around for a long time.

“Hopefully, this booklet will warn and alert readers and save them from losing money.

Mr Anthony said The Little Black Book is an initiative of the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs and has been produced to mark the International Year of Older Persons (IYOP). It has been produced with the assistance of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), both national watchdogs for financial regulation.

The Little Black Book will be available on the Ministerial Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.au) in English and four community languages, Italian, Greek, Chinese and Vietnamese, so that Australians for whom English is not a first language, are not disadvantaged.

More details from The Manager, Consumer Education and Representation Unit, Consumer Affairs Division, Department of the Treasury on Tel 02 6263 3989 Fax 02 6263 2830 Email Consumer Affairs (consumer.affairs@treasury.gov.au)