The Northern Territory Police (NT Police) are warning Territorians of a current online employment fraud.
Police have received reports of Territorians who have fallen victim to fraudulent employment advertisements online that have been posted by organised criminals seeking to use the victim's bank account in order to launder money.
Senior Constable Jason Corbett of the NT Police Cyber Crime Unit said that money launderers target vulnerable people who are looking for honest work.
"They advertise in the same way that real employers and job placement firms do - in online classifieds and social networking websites, including such sites as the Facebook group 'Jobs in Darwin NT,'" said Senior Constable Corbett.
"The online criminals will respond quickly and say that the job seeker is a perfect candidate.
"They will then request the use of the job seeker's bank account, providing a pretext such as that they are overseas, the business bank account is under audit or yet to be set up.
"They can be very convincing, providing employment contracts and a digital representation of a seemingly real business, however their goal is simply to either use your bank account to move the proceeds of online offending or obtain your own personal identifying information in order to facilitate further online fraud.
"The important thing to remember is that no legitimate business will ever ask to use your personal bank account to transfer money. Never agree to transfer money for someone else - this is potentially money laundering, a criminal offence, exposing you to possible criminal prosecution."
If you have suffered a financial loss or have provided personal identifying information, then you should report this to your bank immediately and to police on 131 444 or go to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) at https://www.acorn.gov.au/.
