Super scammers defrauded Lee of his retirement savings. Industry experts are calling for better protections
Even though Lee won his case, he's worse off because of legal fees. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)
Lee Braz was well into his 50s and knew he had to sort out his super.
Then he received a call from a Sydney company promising to help him do just that.
But the call was the start of a nightmare that would see Lee's entire super balance, about $180,000, stolen.
Before going ahead, Lee checked the company's website and saw it was properly registered in Australia.
In sales documents it claimed to have impressive returns using money from self-managed super funds to invest in tech and finance giants like Google and Visa.
Lee sent over his passport to open an account. He wanted to invest $10,000 first to see how it performed.
But scammers used the documents he'd provided to fraudulently take the lot.
His fund, Intrust Super, failed to notice anything suspicious with the dodgy rollover form.
Intrust is now owned by Hostplus which manages $110 billion for 1.8 million people.
It wasn't until Lee opened a letter from his super fund that he realised anything was wrong.
"[It said] as per your wishes, we've transferred your entire super balance. I just went, 'What's going on here? This is crazy'."
'One call could have stopped it'
When Lee saw the rollover forms, he could tell straight away there were several issues.
"That's definitely not my signature, I smell a rat," he said.
It wasn't just the fake signature, there was a dubious printout of a bank account when it was meant to be a proper statement.
The printout was certified by an accountant in Sydney, but Lee lived on the Gold Coast, and accountants aren't allowed to certify documents.
His fund didn't have multi-factor authentication in place — so he never received an alert by text message or email.
"One phone call or one SMS could have stopped it," he said.
A sales script to screw Aussies out of their super
A call centre in the Philippines allegedly played a crucial role in the theft of Lee's funds and is at the centre of a number of fraudulent super schemes.
In Lee's scheme, known as SMSF Advisory Services, a total of 16 people were fleeced out of about $4.8 million.
In 2022, it was raided by authorities along with a private residence and the ABC's cameras were there.
Among the evidence uncovered was a call script for targeting Australians.
- "Aussies … are relaxed people but still like a layer of professionalism."
- "No swearing … even if the client is swearing off his head."
- A heading said: "You're NOT selling them your [sic] helping them".
- "When a client joins our firm they might start with $10k or a million dollars."
Australian cyber-crime investigator Ken Gamble observed the raids in Manila after victims paid him to look into what happened.
"These were very cleverly prepared scripts … to explain all the so-called legitimate services that this fraudulent organisation was actually carrying out," Mr Gamble said.
While no charges have been laid in the Philippines, a criminal prosecution is underway in Australia of a man with direct links to the call centre.
Larry John Dawson, 67, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to money laundering in the NSW District Court.
Dawson admitted to setting up an Australian company, PW Kitt Co, as cover to launder the stolen money into cryptocurrency.
The fake company impersonated a real one run by a Sydney accountant and Dawson created seven bank accounts.
When police searched Dawson's Tweed Heads unit they found a note with the name of a British man and the figure of $US21,000.
One of the Australian company's bank accounts was used to pay the British man.
In court documents Dawson said the British man was in charge of a Philippine company running the call centre and it marketed fraudulent super schemes.
Mr Gamble said the note was a significant breakthrough.
"This was a direct connection and very hard evidence, it strongly linked him with the operation in the Philippines," he said.
Four-year legal fight exposes ombudsman's serious errors
After losing his super, Lee received another blow — Hostplus refused to pay him back.
He took his dispute to the financial ombudsman but the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) sided with the super fund.
It found he wasn't entitled to one cent because the fund had met its obligations and carried out basic checks.
Lee decided to fight back, spending a fortune on legal fees to appeal to the Federal Court.
This time the judge found in his favour — ruling the ombudsman's decision should be scrapped.
AFCA's legal errors included not adequately considering that Lee had not made the request to rollover his funds and did not consent to it.
"They should be embarrassed," Lee said about AFCA.
It forced the ombudsman to reassess his case.
But AFCA's second decision also left Lee bitterly disappointed.
This time the ombudsman found the super fund had missed red flags and should have contacted him to check the rollover before going ahead.
But it still decided he should bear the brunt of the loss because he provided key information which allowed the fraud to occur and should have known the returns the scammers were offering were too good to be true.
Lee was awarded 30 per cent of what he lost, about $54,000, leaving him worse off after paying legal fees.
"I've really lost a lot of faith in AFCA," he said.
"I'm actually worse off by fighting it and winning in court than if I'd left it and just said goodbye to all that super."
'Manifestly unfair'
Josh Mennen is a lawyer with firm Maurice Blackburn who specialises in superannuation disputes.
He did not represent Lee but agreed to review his case at the ABC's request.
"It's so manifestly unfair and unreasonable for Mr Braz," he said.
"He's been so substantially left out of pocket as a result of holding the ombudsman and the [super fund] trustee to account for their errors."
In the second decision, the ombudsman introduced a concept of "apparent consent".
The ombudsman said "apparent consent" meant the super fund trustee could rely on the assumption Lee had signed the rollover request, even though he hadn't and didn't consent to it.
Mr Mennen believed that argument was seriously flawed.
"What AFCA has done is essentially seek to sidestep the court's findings and therefore make a decision which is contrary to the law, in my opinion," he said.
"I believe that if Mr Braz were to have appealed the second decision, he would have been successful."
AFCA declined to be interviewed and did not respond to detailed questions, saying it could not because of "strict privacy and confidentiality rules".
It said scams and fraud in superannuation was "an emerging area" and it had taken into account the Federal Court findings.
Calls to review other ombudsman decisions
The case has led to calls for similar AFCA cases to be reviewed, like that of Andrew Holmes.
He also lost his life savings after scammers pretended to be him and successfully lodged a fraudulent rollover.
"I see glaring similarities. I would expect AFCA to reopen and look at my case again," Mr Holmes said.
AFCA's lead ombudsman for superannuation Heather Gray said in a statement, "We urge superannuation fund trustees to keep their processes under review, and to make full use of facilities such as multi-factor authentication".
Hostplus declined to be interviewed and did not answer questions citing "privacy concerns".
"Mr Braz was the victim of fraud resulting in a loss of funds from his Intrust Super account in 2020, prior to the merger with Hostplus," a spokesperson said in a statement.
Protections not robust enough
Rebekah Sarkoezy from Super Consumers Australia said Lee's case highlighted the large gaps in consumer protections.
"They're not robust enough to protect people," she said.
She has called on the Albanese government to urgently increase obligations under an industry code — similar to what it was already working on for banks, telcos and social media platforms.
Obligations should include making compulsory multi-factor authentication and checks on who owns a bank account when rolling over a member's super, she said.
Federal Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones told the ABC he was shocked by Lee's case.
"This is a terrible case, which demonstrates the need for a change in the law and for business to uplift their protections," he said.
Lee wants the super sector to be made safer for others.
"They can't be that complacent with people's life savings," he said.
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