ABN FRAUD RUNNING RIFE IN LOGISTICS

CASES of ABN fraud are being picked up almost every week by Western Australian logistics company Transitainer.

Director Kelly Crossley said she was picking up attempts to fraudulently use client details to bring in a host of illicit goods including drugs and tobacco.  Ms Crossley said she had even seen examples of client websites being copied with tiny changes being made to it in an attempt for the fraudster to appear legitimate.

“ABN fraud is massive – people who are stealing legitimate businesses in Australia’s ABN, along with their details and their identity, and then posing as those people on an import, bringing cargo in under that ABN – and it’s all false,” Ms Crossley said.

“Its other name is piggybacking, that’s how half of the tobacco is coming in.”

Ms Crossley said Transitainer had processes in place that staff must adhere to before taking on new business but she saw so many dodgy emails that she could now recognise those that were  fraudulent instantly.

“There’s a lot of red flags. Often the emails will come from a Gmail or a Hotmail account. Not always, because we know that there are plenty of those that are real.

“A lot of illicit material is coming in but it’s not talked about.  I don’t think there’s enough education amongst the forwarders and brokers.

“I think there are a lot of things we can do about it. Both brokers and forwarders need to take on some responsibility for these transactions happening. And if they do happen, then they need to be doing their due diligence, which I think a lot of brokers are probably being a little bit lazy about. We should be checking that they’re a fit and proper person. We should be checking ID.

“Some companies are too busy and they just don’t do the right checks.”

“Last week I had one, I didn’t do the clearance obviously because I knew it was dodgy. And I flagged it to ABF and I actually flagged it to the co-loader and to Border Watch. I also rang the importer because they have no clue of what’s just happened and that their details have just been stolen.”

“It’s time-consuming and at the end of the day, I could just flag it and then walk away from it. I’ve done my bit but I think it takes people to actually put in that effort to make changes and to be making those changes we need to sometimes go a little bit above and beyond, step up. It’s a lot of work but somebody’s got to do it.”

Ms Crossley said the dark web was also an issue.

“If you’re a customs broker and you let one get through because you haven’t screened them enough, your name will
go out in the dark web as an easy target and you’ll start to get a lot of inquiries. So we have a very strict policy of what my staff must do before we take on a job because we do get lots of random enquiries.”

Written 21st May 2025 by Allen Newton for The DCN 

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