There's rarely a day that passes that I don't get phone calls from an East-Indian or other offshore call center purporting to represent a legitimate Australian business. As a provider of high-level marketing services to the mortgage industry and directly to brokers, we inherit the same responsibilities that are expected of financial providers. As such, we'll now be recording these scam conversations wherever possible. We won't provide accurate details to the caller - or any personal details for that matter - but we will keep them on the phone long enough to learn something about them.
Note: Astutue Financial & Nexus Money are in no way responsible for the phone calls as described in in this article. They are both legitimate businesses that are dealing with their name being used in a fraudulent manner.
While working away today I had the presence of mind to record one such conversation. Instead of providing a lecture to the caller on their wayward life choices and criminal activities, today I (partially) went along for the ride.
What happens with the second phone call is a little unknown (I suspect it's to obtain personal details prior to the first "meeting"... a meeting that'd never eventuate, of course). While I didn't have the time to follow the process to completion, there is a chance - however slight - that the calls are actually attached to a grossly unethical and local broker agency. There's a possibility they're also connected to a local group associated with identity theft.
Astute Financial 
and Nexus Money 
- both very reputable organisations - have security alerts published on their website. Neither has any connection to the unsolicited calls. The ACCC is yet to publish any specific information on their website 
.
The experience is one that might be used to reinforce the value and uniqueness of (one part of) our trust-based broker referrer program. The referring is completed via a broker website, and the transaction is immediately followed by an email from that person making the recommendation. This is followed up by another email from the mortgage broker before a phone call or other contact takes place.
If you're in the finance industry and looking for leading marketing guidance, call us on 1300 BELIEF (that's 1300 235 433).
