In its first risk assessment report on stored value cards AUSTRAC assessed "the criminal threat environment posed by these cards to be "medium". These are gift cards, issued by entities that are not captured by Australia's AML/CTF regime."SVCs are used to support a wide variety of criminal activities, perpetrated by individuals as well as serious and organised crime groups," according to AUSTRAC.AUSTRAC analysed in detail two years of "Suspicious matter reports" in relation to SVCs.  The most frequently reported offence indicated in the dataset was money laundering, notably loading large volumes of cash and movement of large volumes of funds offshore.  ("Above the threshold" refers to anti-money laundering and counter terrorism requirements obligations: if the card can hold $1,000 or more at any one time and cash can be withdrawn from the card)SVCs have been used to support terrorism financing. Criminal intelligence and analysis revealed that SVCs have been used by foreign terrorist fighters before and after departure from Australia. For instance, 12 SVC-related terrorism financing reports were submitted to AUSTRAC during the sample period; all related to above the threshold SVCs being redeemed in countries that border Syria. "Below the threshold" stored value cards that can be redeemed offshore are also highly vulnerable to exploitation by terrorism financiers, who may seek to use them as anonymous vehicles for moving the smaller sums of money that are associated with terrorism financing.AUSTRAC assessed that the use of SVCs to finance terrorism may increase, particularly if displacement from other international remittance channels continues to grow. Suspected cyber-enabled fraud is also particularly prevalent in relation to SVCs, and represents the second-largest category of SMRs in the sample period. Many SMRs in the dataset describe cybercriminals transferring funds from victims' bank accounts onto above the threshold SVCs, then redeeming the stolen funds from the SVCs (generally in cash). Other suspicious behaviour associated with above the threshold SVCs included:•    scam activity (primarily suspected romance scams), in which scammers use SVCs to receive and access funds deceptively obtained from victims •    tax evasion, in which customers receive wages or payments onto SVCs in apparent attempts to avoid tax obligations•    offshore redemption of SVCs where an unknown third party is loading or redeeming funds, SVCs may be less likely to be used for cyber-enabled fraud due to the lower storage thresholds.