National Australia Bank appears to be the prime target of an organised fraud group operating unlicensed trading exchanges and wealth management services over the internet.
As reported in Banking Day on Tuesday, European regulators last week issued official warnings to consumers to avoid using a crypto trading exchange known as NAB Crypto following complaints from users that they had been blocked from withdrawing funds from their trading accounts.
Since then Banking Day has discovered a second unlicensed web platform leveraging the “NAB” moniker that offers currency trading and other financial services.
In July a company marketing itself as “NAB Capital Ltd” claimed ownership of the web addresses www.nab-capital.com and www.nab-capital.io.
The site addresses are now actively marketing a wide sweep of financial services to customers in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union.
NAB Capital Ltd discloses no details on its website of any licences from Australian or international regulators.
While the site markets financial advice services to Australian customers it neither provides users with a financial services guide nor a product disclosure statement.
However, Australian clients are able to be serviced by NAB Capital through an email platform and a customer call centre using a Sydney area number.
The Sydney phone number has been linked to telemarketing and consumer scams in the past, according to online call monitoring sites.
The NAB Capital website does not name the founders or directors of the company but claims they are trading and finance experts.
“NAB Capital is founded by a team of industry experts with background in Forex, Finance and Technology,” the company tells prospective customers on the site.
“Thanks to years of experience at the forefront of the trading industry, we have both the insight and knowledge to provide unrivalled trading conditions.
“NAB Capital provides all the tools necessary for traders of any level.
“We have pioneered intuitive, user-friendly and feature-rich platform for the needs of people looking to make their first investments as well as those who are industry veterans.
“Our experience and passion is the key to sustained success.
“We firmly believe that a unique business model like ours, that aligns our success with the success of our clients, is the only road to building solid, durable and trustworthy relationships.”
There are marked similarities in the design and content of the www.nab-capital.com and www.nabcrypto.io websites.
Moreover, both sites focus their promotion on encouraging subscribers to enter high-risk Contracts for Difference trading with cryptocurrencies.
While NAB Crypto has been active since the start of the year, databases operated by internet domain name registries suggest “NAB Capital” has been peddling its service offers for around two months.
Until a decade ago the National Australia Bank used to operate its global wholesale banking division under the “NAB Capital” name, but the trading name was dropped following an organisational restructure during the global financial crisis.
Banking Day yesterday requested an interview with NAB about the potential brand damage and risks to customers that fraudulent websites posed to the bank.
Chris Sheehan, the bank’s executive head of investigations and fraud was not available to answer questions, but said in an emailed statement that the bank was always monitoring the web for sites trying to exploit the company’s branding.
“As part of NAB’s ongoing cyber security processes, websites and social media accounts that impersonate NAB are regularly searched for and detected,” he said in the email.
“NAB has a set of processes and procedures in place to take down fraudulent sites and we work closely with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to monitor this space as it’s an ongoing challenge banks face.”
Sheehan did not comment on why “NAB Capital” and “NAB Crypto” were continuing to operate.
He said the bank encouraged customers to remain vigilant to keep themselves safe from scams and to contact the bank if they believed they were victims of fraudulent activity.
Banking risk management expert Dr Patrick McConnell said the bank should act swiftly to shut down the problematic “NAB Capital” site.
“NAB Capital was, in the minds of many Australians, a ‘good’ name,” he said.
“Long term National Australia Bank customers could easily assume - as I myself did - that ‘NAB Capital’ is still an operating arm of the National Australia Bank.
“In a low-interest rate environment self-funded retirees could easily be scammed into investing – though the combination of CFDs and cryptocurrencies should set alarm bells ringing.
“NAB should work to close this obvious scam down as soon as possible.”