On 24 June 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) updated its guidance for Australian financial services (AFS) licensees on how they can reduce share sale fraud risks to their clients and business. The update follows a spike in reports of stolen shares due to identity theft and an industry review.

Stepping up

The guidance is located in ASIC Information Sheet 237 Protecting against share sale fraud (INFO 237) and reflects findings from a recent ASIC-led industry review into AFS licensees’ client onboarding and verification practices, in addition to their share sale fraud detection practices. ASIC is calling on market intermediaries “to step up and protect their customers by strengthening their share sale fraud prevention, detection and response practices”.

Better practices

To help market intermediaries step up the updated guidance now contains better practices for fraud prevention and detection, and these include:

  • being alert to possible use of stock images, fakes, forgeries, and independently verifying their authenticity when onboarding new clients;
  • monitoring trading behaviour and conducting additional due diligence where trading is unusual for a client, a client makes large withdrawal requests or newly opened accounts are observed; and
  • conducting further due diligence when clients add or request changes to personal information such as postal/email addresses and bank accounts, including, where possible, checking that bank accounts are held in the client’s name.

Next steps

Market intermediaries and other AFS licensees need to read the updated guidance and update their share sale fraud prevention, detection and response practices where necessary.

They should also consider:

  • ASIC’s Report 761 Scam prevention, detection and response by the four major banks (REP 761)
  • ASIC’s Report 790 Anti-scam practices of banks outside the four major banks (REP 790), and 
  • The use of digital ID services accredited under the Digital ID Act 2024 to safely and securely verify people’s identity online.

Superannuation trustees are also reminded that in January 2025 ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant issued a letter urging them to strengthen their anti-scam practices.