-We are really looking at old wine in a new bottle," Inman explained. -Unscrupulous individuals are using the Internet simply as another medium to swindle the public."
Contrary to expectations, Inman said that finding and prosecuting people for Internet-based fraud was surprisingly straight forward thanks to the -robustness" of Australian domain name management services.
-Unlike other top level domains, the .com.au [dot-com dot-au] registration process ensures a lot of integrity in terms of the information regarding the businesses behind the web sites in question," Inman said.
While he conceded that tracking down fraudulent business practices on Web sites hosted outside Australia was a more difficult process, he pointed out that ASIC was able to piggy back multilateral policing agreements and track down fraudsters even internationally.
-Most of the crime we come across has to do with unlicenced investment advice, and stock manipulation attempts," Inman said. -Most of them operate through spam campaigns which then refer back to a web site, and we rely on the public to tell us if they come across anything suspicious."
According to Inman ASIC is currently tracking 84 sites suspected of breaching the Corporations Act, for a range of crimes based around the illegal promotion of different financial products and services, or failing to meet disclosure standards.
-This sort of behaviour isn't any less illegal when it is done online," Inman said. -Consumers have a right to be protected, and we are in the business of enforcing that right."
