Reporter tracks down scammers in dramatic raid | 60 Minutes Australia

Schadenfreude is a German word that describes the pleasure derived from another person's misfortune. It may be a brutal emotion, but tonight I guarantee you will enjoy watching the misery of the men you are about to meet. They are a group of criminal fraudsters who have been scamming ordinary Australians out of millions of hard-earned dollars, but no longer, these criminals are caught red-handed, arrested and jailed. It's an important victory for the good guys. This should make all Australians very happy. Professional hustlers undone by their own arrogance and greed. gentlemen scamming some Aziza for months this unimpressive office in Manila in the Philippines has been the headquarters of a sophisticated scam but you know, it is becoming clear that they are making money illegally, Anthony, we are

scammers

here, we are cold.

Thousands of unsuspecting Aziz and Gaston are trained and tricked into handing over their life savings for fake shares in real companies, but today the game is over, the

scammers

who run these operations are professional con artists, the bouncers are very good liars, They sell the dream and a lot of Australians are looking for the dream, why did you make it a success? No, we said stocks, I don't sell stocks, look at stocks, you still can't be enough, are you very sorry? I'm so sorry you borrowed Kearney from you have like 70 Shire these quick scams have been dismantled thanks to months of covert surveillance by Australian private investigator Ken Gamble this is transnational organized crime at the highest level it's devastating for the victims it's huge in size involves hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars and also funds and fuels other organized crimes, so these are the boos where they work, these are their workstations, you can see all the scripts they have even though these Expats from the US and UK are in Manila.

They tell callers that they are working for an investment company in Australia and that they have too good a deal to turn down our cold people and they will ask them some very basic questions: Are you interested in investing? Would you mind if we sent you some information? So it's like a traditional telephone sales operation. It's exactly that these people have been doing it for a long time. They are very professional and put a lot of pressure on the investor to make decisions quickly. Do you think these are all Australian names or they are not, they are all Australian, they are all Australian and they only point to Australia.

This board shows the sad truth, the last Australians who were sold the dream and the hundreds of thousands of dollars they scanned and as we move forward, documents we will contact them and learn that they have been victims of the scam we'll give you the bad news we'll give you the bad news that won't be suppose not, it's not that some of these people probably invested all the money they had into what is now nothing to scare thousands of miles from the Philippines in the city of Griffith, in New South Wales Robert Coy goes out for a morning run at the age of 69 and was hoping to retire, but two years ago a cold call lured him into the trap of scammers, now his retirement is almost ruined.

If I can ask you directly how much money you have paid them, they are probably in the number three hundred thousand three hundred fifty years and I make three million dollars fifty thousand. That's a lot of money to lose, yes Robert, that's a lot of milk, although this is a bill of sale under an obviously false name. A large chunk of Roberts' money was deposited into the Timberhill group's ANZ account here in Australia to buy shares. one hundred and eighty thousand dollars for these years, Robert, yes, Jesus, a lot of money on a head and $10,000 for that cleverly, the Timberhill group name was close enough to other legitimate companies that used the Timberhill name, but this one was a scam for novice investors like Robert.

His website also looked impressive. Their headquarters are supposed to be in this high-rise building in the center of Sydney. Robert, the Timberhill address on this fake letterhead. 65 York Street in Sydney. Have you ever thought about going there? Yes, it's only an hour away by plane. He never thought about visiting the head office. Unfortunately, a simple check would have revealed that the company does not exist at this address. Do you feel sorry for the victims? I feel sorry for them because you know that many of them are workers and their families. family men mostly once they believe it's real there is no turning back they really do it out of stupidity or is it greed that pushes them forward there is a combination of greed some people do want to try to make easy money no doubt about it On the other hand, there are people who are simply trying to do the right thing, make money, and build a future for their family.

It is almost impossible to give an exact figure for the number of victims trapped in these seals, but we do know. The rate at which life savings are being scammed is phenomenal. In just the first three weeks of this year, Australians living in rural towns like this one have sent no less than fifteen million dollars to criminal gangs and scammers in the Philippines. and Ken Briggs, 70, recently retired, was the perfect target when scammers called him out of the blue at his Manship. Well, I got a phone call and a few things too. Chickie, you had enough hidden that you thought I could use it.

That and maybe make some money, yes, yes, the former Queensland bus driver wanted to get a better return on his savings than keep them in the bank, so what's the difference? Why did this set do you good? I think it was just the spiel they put on. The first time, soon, you're talking to someone and I can give you some factors as you think those effects, I think I really second, so it was trust, it's one thing to build a person's trust, but this scam is about From Taking a Person to the Bank in less than four weeks, Ken deposited $60,000 worth of fake stock into said bank accounts.

In reality, many people never admit that they have been appropriated by these people. Well, you can understand that that can, can't you? They must be very good at making you feel like you are almost a friend. Totally fine. I don't think you've even paid this much for a car in my life. I'm usually pretty frugal. with my money to get sucked in like this I just can't believe showing you exactly how they sell the scam. I need to scam myself a little, there are only a few days left before Ken Gamble

raid

s the Manila office and the police, so I called the supposed office of the Timberhill group posing as a potential client.

Timberhill doesn't know it, but John Anderson has been under surveillance for months. His real name is Paul, an expatriate from the United States. The key to his confidence trick is convincing callers that his money is safely invested in Australia. Okay, so my money would effectively stay here in Australia. Anderson follows a script: He offers me a deal on the same fake shares of a real company bought by Robert Coy. and Ken Brees, if I were to put up 20 to 50,000, I mean how long will it be before I see any kind of decent return, you're talking six months, twelve months, that's pretty impressive, ninety, two hundred and twenty days, that's it, that's impressive, very good.

I'm going to go ahead and fill out that online application and I'm looking forward to meeting you, John, and dealing with you. The faces behind the fraud have been revealed. Hello, is it there? I row 20 to 50 thousand lies, damn lies, have you spoken to Australian investors? no, no, and no, apologies for these scams because they're stupid, that's next in 60 Minutes building Australian investigator Ken Gamble's plan to catch the scammers. He's in his last days there, on the 24th floor. They don't have any sign on the office, it's just a door for weeks, he and his team have been tracking the daily movements of the scammers where they live, what time they arrived for work and when they got paid, so there they are, that news is a new day, here's a new African, hundreds of Australians would have received calls from these men today.

They absolutely know it's a scam. They are all in this together. All workers. They know what they are doing is illegal. They know they are scamming people. The case had its chance when. Ken was contacted by an insider willing to rat out fellow whistleblowers in the Philippines who are trading in very dangerous territory when they start ratting out the people they work with and I am aware of a number of cases where whistleblowers have been killed or seriously injured. Peter, as we'll call him, is prepared to take the risk and tell Australians why he did it.

You get your first cell phone. You see the money. No. You get excited, so that motivates you more to keep doing it. and in doing so, you know you have a guy on the phone, you're talking to him and you're introducing him and you know he's telling you, you know I'm not convinced and you end up convincing Herman to sit it out and give you 30,000. He's okay, well, you know, here's 200,000. Was there a feeling in the office about Aziz? Yeah, I mean, there were some conversations about it. I mean, we have a choice. You know, we can contact Australia, New Zealand, the Europeans and they all just backed out. those that stay in Australia, you know that's what we're most successful at because it's easy to work properly and even though they've lost again, greed is what attracts them, you know there's an opportunity here to hopefully win back what that they lost and get on Peter says they gave him the names and numbers of 200 Australians to call every day, day by day, how many businesses did you see in the place, probably closer, maybe a quarter of a million dollars a day, a quarter of a million dollars, yes, but with your Commission at this stage, how much did you earn per week approximately between 3,000 USD and 11,000 USD per week? $11,000 a week yeah that's a big incentive to keep your mouth shut it's a guilty conscience doesn't exactly fit the profile of a scam man but Peter tells us he's stopped scamming now so you made a mistake you feel pity for the victims, right.

I guess there are too many stories, you know, hearing customers complain, you know they lost their life savings to Condor families, they lost a house. now homeless only for someone like me we know these people are responsible for defrauding dozens and dozens of

australia

ns these fake stocks in a secret location in downtown manila ken is informing his team about a plan to scam the scammers, this guy here how in sterling, he's the boss, he's been under investigation for a few months, this is his son, Nathan is also working on the operations, we hope to find scripts, banking information, most importantly a full list of the victims in Australia, the people who are really being defrauded. inside this high rise building the scammers are just starting to work when these officers barge in it's a day to forget for these crops including John Anderson that's John eNOS that's him the soft spoken American I spoke to a few days before, this is our email that there are 20 250k notes just made it's pretty convincing evidence they are completely shameless are they what are you putting your hand over your face for grace because I don't want to be on camera really yeah, good life for That hasn't sunk? yet, but these men will spend tonight in a crowded cell.

You guys have been happy to scam hundreds of Australians. They don't look particularly happy this morning about these scams because they're stupid for a scammer that John Anderson isn't. I don't have much to figure out, so let's see what your business is in real life. Yes, have you spoken to Australian investors? No, no, this is your desk, it's not whatever, write it down, whatever it is. USA. I see the typical reaction of people who find themselves in this situation. I know they've been caught red-handed. It was a pleasure meeting you Mr Anderson, nice to meet you, you had a great time in Australia, the news of a police

raid

is bittersweet for victims like Ken Briggs, it is confirmation that he has been deceived and probably lost all his savings , is it a feeling of disappointment in yourself or is it just pure frustration, yes I think there is a huge feeling of disappointment in myself, I just understand that I couldn't understand it in the first place, what makes it even harder to swallow is the revelation that Australian banks were unknowingly used to scam money. your father or an account here in Australia you think where is all the money and in it an Australian company and be one of the big four banks.

Hey, that gave you confidence too. Oh yes, definitely, so we tracked down the A&Z account holders who did it all. possible for Australians living in Melbourne it turns out that the sole director of the Timberhill group is this 28 year old man, Miroslav Lunt, his day job is concreting industrial sites like this Murrah Slab when we meetwith him to ask him about his ANZ account Miroslav Sir that allowed criminal gangs in the Philippines to launder money, you got a first minute murder that you were not willing to preside over, just like why the second ANZ account promoted by the scammers in the Philippines belongs to this 47-year-old man?

Joseph kulia, managing director of property confidential group, mr. Coolio was not home when we visited Dee in the suburbs, but both men have since denied any knowledge of a scam, most victims will never see their money again, even with legal force in action, even putting these Scammers in prison, the money is gone. is doing everything it can to recover money from Australian victims. It's a job I wish had the attention of the Australian government. It's not something the government has shown much interest in, this is large-scale organized crime and the government needs to put financial crime on a par with drug trafficking, murder for hire, all the traditional mafia-related crimes that we see out there, they have to do it.

Make this a very high priority or in due time we will see the profits being used to fund other very serious activities, including terrorism. Hi, I'm Liam Bartlett, thanks for watching, so stay up to date with the latest news from 60 Minutes Australia. Make sure to subscribe to our channel. You can also download the 9 Now app to watch full episodes and other exclusive 60 Minutes content.