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Latest scams alerts
Stay informed on the latest scams. Get up-to-date information on how scams work and what to look out for so you can protect yourself.
May 2025 – Macquarie Bank impersonation scam calls
We’re seeing continued instances of scammers purporting to be Macquarie staff, cold calling clients about ‘suspicious transactions’ and attempting to solicit Macquarie Authenticator app offline codes during the calls. They advise these codes are either for identity purposes, to make payments to a ‘safe’ account, or to cancel a suspicious payment.
Important: These codes are being used by the scammers to make and authorise fraudulent payments. We will never ask for these codes.
As with previous instances of this scam, the scammers may already have limited information on victims, including names, phone numbers, and partial card numbers, which they provide during calls to try and boost their legitimacy.
For more information on how to verify that you’re legitimately speaking to Macquarie, please visit our website.
If you have doubts or concerns about a communication you have received, please contact us at scams@macquarie.com.
Learn more: Bank impersonation scams
May 2025 – Bank branded bond scams
Scammers posing as representatives of Big Start Pty Ltd, AAA Private Wealth Advisers, and Capital Guard are attempting to solicit investments in fake bank branded bonds, including fake Macquarie-branded bonds.
Contact details that have so far been used by the scammers are outlined below.
Big Start Pty Ltd
- bigstart-capital.com
- bigstart.com.au
- bigstartptyltd.com
- +61 862 442 196
AAA Private Wealth Advisers
- aaapwa.com
- 08 625 60675
Capital Guard
- capitalguard.co
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
March 2025 – Bank-branded bond scams
We have recently been made aware of scammers claiming to be from two separate companies (Australasia Financial Services and 4 Pillars Adviser Services), attempting to solicit investments in fake bank branded bonds, including fake Macquarie-branded bonds.
Contact details that have so far been used by the scammers are outlined below.
Australasia Financial Services
- australasiaratesnow.com
- australasiafinancialservices.com
- australasiafinancial.services
- +61 8 6109 8310
4 Pillars Adviser Services
- 4pillarsadviserservices.com
- 4pillarsas.com
- 4pillarsclienthub.com
- 02 5135 1934
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
February 2025 – Macquarie Bank impersonation SMS
We’ve received reports of scammers impersonating Macquarie and sending their victims SMS messages from the sender ID ‘Macquarie’. These fraudulent SMS messages may appear in the same message thread on your phone as legitimate SMS messages from Macquarie. The SMS messages often include details of a suspicious payment being blocked or registration to a particular service, with the scammers providing a contact number asking victims to call them if they are unaware of this activity. We will not ask you to contact us from any phone numbers that aren’t listed on this page.
If the number is called, these scammers may claim to be from Macquarie’s fraud or security teams. During the call, they may request your Macquarie ID, card number, or authorisation codes, claiming these details are needed as part of verification procedures or to cancel payments. We will never ask you for authorisation codes or passwords.
If you have any doubts or concerns about a communication you have received, please contact us at scams@macquarie.com.
Learn more: Bank impersonation scams
January 2025 – Fixed-rate bond scam
We’ve received reports of scammers posing as representatives of Watercrest Capital, contacting individuals with fraudulent investment opportunities in various ‘fixed rate’ bonds, including corporate, bank, and treasury bonds. To appear credible, these scammers claim to have partnerships with several Australian banks, including Macquarie. Macquarie has no partnership with Watercrest Capital.
Contact details used by the scammers so far:
- 02 3821 3626
- watercrest-capital.com
- watercrestcapital.com
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
December 2024 – Macquarie branded bond scam
Scammers claiming to be from Global Investment Marketing Pty Ltd (GIM) are trying to solicit fraudulent investments in fixed income and corporate bonds, including Macquarie-branded ones. These scammers have set up fake company websites, online reviews, and news articles to appear legitimate.
Contact details used by the scammers so far:
- gimtrading.com
- gimsolutions.com
- 03 9088 1380
- 03 9111 2472
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
November 2024 – Macquarie branded phishing websites
Fraudsters are targeting online banking clients by creating fake ads that appear at the top of search engine results. When clicked, these ads redirect victims to phishing pages that mimic bank login sites and request sensitive information such as:
- username
- password
- answer to secret/security questions
- Macquarie Authenticator rolling codes
- SMS verification codes.
This information is then used by the fraudsters to access accounts and make unauthorised purchases.
Reminder: Avoid searching for bank login pages via search engines, always type the bank’s URL directly into your browser to access their website.
Learn more: Fake Macquarie Websites
November 2024 – Macquarie Bank impersonation scam calls (updated January 2025)
We are aware of scammers purporting to be from the Macquarie fraud team, contacting victims via SMS and phone using various domestic, international and private numbers. We will not contact you from any phone numbers that aren’t listed on this page.
These scammers claim to be verifying suspicious card or bank transactions and are requesting victims provide their Macquarie ID or card number for verification and ‘authorisation codes’ to cancel the payments. We will never ask you for any of these details.
Important: These codes are being used by the scammers to make and authorise fraudulent purchases.
The scammers may already have limited information on victims, including names, phone numbers, and partial card numbers, which they provide during calls to try and boost their legitimacy.
For more information on how to verify that you’re legitimately speaking to Macquarie, please visit our website.
If you have doubts or concerns about a communication you have received, please contact us at scams@macquarie.com.
Learn more: Bank impersonation scams
September 2024 – Macquarie branded bond scam
Scammers posing as representatives from Trinity Asset & Commercial Capital are attempting to solicit fraudulent investments in various bank branded bonds, including those from Macquarie. They have created fake websites and login portals to make the scam appear authentic. The scammers are contacting victims via cold calls and emails, usually initiated from contact details being entered into fake comparison sites.
Contact details used by the scammers so far:
- 02 8526 4790
- 1300 014 906
- trinitycapital.com.au
- Mytacconline.com
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
August 2024 – Macquarie bond scam (updated: January 2025)
Scammers claiming to be from the Macquarie ‘fixed income’ or 'capital finance' divisions have been contacting people through cold calls and emails offering investments in fake “high-yielding bonds” from various financial institutions in Australia.
Contact details used by the scammers so far:
- macquarie-im.com
- macquarie.finance
- macquariefi.com.au
- 02 8310 6933
- 02 9090 4104
- +61 (0) 2 7252 1878
- +61 (0) 8 6102 5100
- +61 (8) 6119 8161
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
June 2024 - Macquarie branded bond scams
Scammers purporting to be from IES INVESTMENTS PTY LTD are attempting to solicit investments in fake Macquarie-branded bonds. They appear to have created fake company websites as well as fake online reviews in an attempt to improve their legitimacy.
Contact details and domains used so far:
iesinvest.com
ies-investments-pty.com
online.ies-investments-pty.com
08 8121 7853
08 7081 0414
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
June 2024 - Macquarie branded term deposit scam
Scammers purporting to be Insignia Financial have been reported contacting individuals, through unsolicited phone calls and emails, offering various bank branded term deposits, including Macquarie.
Contact details used by the scammers so far:
- insigniafinancial.com--about-us.com
- insigniafinancial-clientportal.com
- insigniafinancial-wm.com
- +61 257 000 35
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
May 2024 - Macquarie branded term deposit scam
We have received reports of a fake Canstar phishing email currently being distributed, offering investments in Macquarie branded term deposits.
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
March 2024 - Macquarie branded term deposit scam
A term deposit scam impersonating Macquarie is currently being circulated through cold calls and emails, offering investments into term deposits.
Learn more: Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
Scammers claiming to be from Bond Street Custodians Limited
We’re aware of scammers claiming to be Bond Street Custodians Limited employees, contacting people through cold calls, emails, and social media, offering bond or investment opportunities. The scammers are including the real Bond Street Custodians Limited AFSL number (237489), and ABN (57008607065) on fake prospectuses and emails in an attempt to prove their legitimacy.
Bond Street Custodians Limited, which is a part of the Macquarie Group of companies, provides custodial services only. It does not provide bond or investment opportunities directly to members of the public. Bond Street Custodians Limited does not have its own branding*, email domains, or websites.
If you suspect that you may have been affected by this scam, you should stop all contact with the party you’ve been communicating with and contact us immediately by emailing scams@macquarie.com.
*Last known branding used by scammers,
-note, this could be different to what they use in the future
Macquarie branded term deposit & bond scams
We’re aware of scammers claiming to be from Macquarie and other financial services businesses making unsolicited phone calls or sending emails, attempting to fraudulently solicit fake Macquarie-branded term deposits, ESG bonds, and other types of bond and investment applications. We’d like to emphasise that none of these offers are legitimate.
What to look out for
The scammers will often send emails with attached high-quality documents detailing various ‘investment opportunities’ they have available. These emails are sent from addresses that are similar to the business they’re impersonating (eg. @macquarie-corporate.com, @macquarie.wealth-au.com).
It’s important to take note of details such as these if you receive correspondence and aren’t sure if it’s legitimate.
Macquarie will never send emails detailing multiple investment opportunities. Our product offerings and interest rate information can be sourced directly from our website.
Please note, we don’t offer Macquarie Bonds for retail investors, so we’d never provide an offer document for these. Additionally, the only official offer document for our term deposits can be viewed on our website here.
Other red flags to be aware of include:
- mention of the ‘Financial Claims Scheme’ or ‘government guarantee’ to try to make the investment seem low risk
- inclusion of various government logos on their offer documents
- providing links to the website ‘cbonds’
- term deposit applications requesting funds to be transferred to a specific bank account. All legitimate Macquarie Term Deposit funds are received via direct debit. We’ll never provide you with account details to deposit funds in to.
For more information on these types of scams, please refer to the Moneysmart website here. For information on how to open a Macquarie Term Deposit, click here. If you’d like to open a Macquarie Term Deposit with your financial adviser, click here.
If you’ve been impacted by these scams, please email scams@macquarie.com immediately.
Please review latest scams for recent iterations.
Macquarie Bank impersonation scam
We’re seeing an emerging trend of scammers contacting clients, usually by SMS or a phone call, impersonating the fraud team of various banks, including Macquarie. These scammers often use a tactic known as “spoofing” where they make their calls appear to have come from legitimate Macquarie phone numbers, or a legitimate Macquarie sender name in the case of SMS (see the image below for some examples).
Scam text message example
How the scam works
Here are some of the red flags to look out for with this scam:
- The scammers generally state that they’re looking to verify a transaction or some other suspicious activity.
- They go through verbal identification, much like our own, and then may ask you provide them with “codes” that you receive either by SMS or via the Macquarie Authenticator app, so they can cancel these transactions.
- These codes, in addition to the personal details gained during verbal identification are really being used to either gain access to your online banking and/or authorising payments from your account that the scammers have gained access to.
- Another method they often use is asking that you log in and transfer funds to another “safe” account that they have created for you.
- This “safe” account is one that they control, and the scammers are just waiting for your funds to be deposited so they can steal them.
What we'll never ask you
From time to time, our fraud team may need to contact you to verify certain transactions, which may require verbal identification, however, they will never ask you for or to do the following:
- Ask you to provide online passwords, SMS security codes, or Authenticator app codes (for any reason).
- Request you log into online banking via a link they have sent you.
- Ask you to transfer money to another account to keep it safe.
- Ask you to download software or request remote access to your device.
- Send you your Macquarie access code via email and ask you to repeat it to them.
- Provide you with details about your account to “prove” they are legitimate.
If you have doubts that you’re speaking with a legitimate Macquarie employee, request a reference number and call back on a number you have found from a valid source, like the Macquarie website or the number on the back of your bank card.
If you have any doubts that Macquarie branded correspondence you have received is legitimate, do not respond, this can be forwarded through to scams@macquarie.com for review and confirmation of legitimacy.
How to contact us
If you suspect that you may have been affected by this scam and if you’ve provided personal details or your funds have been transferred, please call us immediately on 02 8550 5666 (and for international locations on +61 2 8550 5666).
If you suspect you’ve received calls or an SMS, but you haven’t shared any details or transferred any funds, please report the scam by emailing scams@macquarie.com.
Please review latest scams for recent iterations.
Fake Macquarie Bank website alert
Websites impersonating Macquarie Bank’s online banking login page have been identified in the form of ads displayed in search engine results.
This is a common form of phishing scam where fake websites are created to look like an organisation’s login page to mislead customers into sharing their confidential information such as their login details or passwords.
These phishing websites may ask for information such as a customer’s Macquarie ID, password, one time passcode, or card details, which are then used to make fraudulent account and card transactions.
In this instance, fraudsters pay for these ads to show up in the top search results, which misleads customers into believing the search result is genuine. After clicking the link, the customer is automatically redirected to a fake website, where they’re at risk of having their personal and financial information captured and compromised.
What to look out for
Check for misspelled words in the advertisement URL and avoid clicking on the advertisement, even if it appears in the top search result.
You can see an example below of a phishing advertisement.
What to do
Never click on any links that take you directly to a Macquarie online banking login page.
Type macquarie.com.au into your browser and click on the login button on the page to log into online banking instead of through internet searches or links.
If you've been impacted by this phishing advertisement, please email scams@macquarie.com immediately.
Please review latest scams for recent iterations.
Additional information
This information has been prepared by Macquarie Bank Limited ABN 46 008 583 542 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 237502 and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making any financial investment decision or a decision about whether to acquire a product, a person should obtain and review the offer documents relating to that product and also seek independent financial, legal and taxation advice. Lending criteria, fees and T&Cs apply. We make no guarantee concerning the accuracy of data and information contained on third party websites.