Fraud messages received ... say Bay of Plenty people People in the western Bay of Plenty have taken on board the messages of the Protect Yourself From Fraud campaign carried out during October and November last year. A survey undertaken after the media and speaking campaign by the Commission and the Serious Fraud Office showed significantly raised awareness of investment fraud by people aged 25 and over. Get independent advice and Promises of spectacular returns usually result in spectacular losses were the messages that most people remembered. "This convinces us that we are on the right track to reach people with useful information that can help them avoid becoming victims of fraud," Jane Diplock says. "The Bay of Plenty campaign was a pilot which we can adapt for other parts of the country." The campaign featured many speaking engagements to community groups as well as news reports and advertising. The McNamara Mackintosh post-campaign survey questioned 100 people who had attended a presentation and 200 people from the general public who had not been to a presentation but who could recall publicity from the campaign. The survey revealed that a significant percentage of people have experienced investment fraud, with 67% of the respondents who had attended a presentation, and 25% of respondents in the general public group, saying they had personal experience of investment fraud. Understanding of investment fraud before and after a presentation by the Commission or the Serious Fraud Office - results from 100 interviews: Understanding of investment fraud before and after the publicity - results from 202 interviews: The main types of fraud identified by respondents were email scams and cold calls from overseas with bogus offers of shares. "This result confirms our fears that the reports we hear of cold calling overseas broker frauds are just the tip of the iceberg," Commission Chairman Jane Diplock says. "We again warn people to hang up on these callers." Many of the other frauds are likely to be Nigerian-type letters and lottery scams which continue to plague New Zealanders, and which should be ignored and destroyed. Enforceable undertakings In cases where aspects of securities law have not been fully complied with, the Commission is sometimes willing to accept a written undertaking from the party concerned. These undertakings can be enforced by the Courts, and the Commission also reserves the right to take other action as appropriate. Since the October 2004 issue of The Bulletin, the Commission has accepted enforceable undertakings from: Kookmin Bank 16 November 2004 Auckland Investment Properties Limited 29 November 2004 Momentum Magazine Group Limited 3 December 2004 Carlin Enterprises Limited 22 December 2004 These undertakings are published on www.seccom.govt.nz. Disclosure by finance companies The Commission is preparing a report on disclosure by finance companies under the Securities Act 1978 and Securities Regulations 1983. This follows a discussion paper, Disclosure by Finance Companies, published in September 2004. The final report will be based substantially on the discussion paper and submissions received. The Commission is grateful to all those who responded. Generally, the submissions strongly supported the Commission's view that finance companies need to improve their disclosure. The Commission's report will also refer to disclosure practices by finance companies in their annual financial reports. The Commission expects to publish its report in the first quarter of 2005.

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THE BULLETIN January 2005

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