ASIC Warnings

Suggested considerations

• Firms should consider reviewing digital advertising, affiliate, referral and social-media monitoring for deepfake endorsements, unauthorised use of executive or brand identities, fake licence claims and links to cloned investment platforms.
• Compliance teams may wish to test whether the firm’s website address, legal entity name, AFSL number and contact details are consistently displayed and match ASIC’s Professional Registers Search, including any authorised representative relationships.
• Firms should consider implementing or refreshing rapid escalation and takedown processes for impersonation, cloned websites, fraudulent advertisements and misleading investment promotions, with documented evidence of referrals to platforms, banks, ASIC, cyber.gov.au and Scamwatch where appropriate.
• Marketing and distribution controls may wish to require provenance and approval checks for celebrity, influencer, public-figure and AI-generated content, together with surveillance for fabricated reviews, news articles and testimonials.
• Risk and governance functions should consider assessing AI-enabled scam and impersonation scenarios within financial-crime, cyber-risk, operational-resilience and consumer-harm frameworks, including scripted follow-up calls, fake trading dashboards and small initial profit payments used to build trust.
• Firms should consider reviewing customer and counterparty onboarding controls for entities claiming to hold an AFSL, and escalation procedures where an opportunity encourages consumers to bypass licensed professionals or cannot be independently verified.
• Boards or risk committees may wish to receive trend reporting on impersonation incidents, customer complaints, fraudulent domains, takedown requests, losses and control remediation, notwithstanding that this media release itself imposes no new reporting requirement.

What changed

No new rule, mandatory control, reporting obligation or compliance deadline was introduced. ASIC has reinforced its expectation that consumers independently verify Australian Financial Services Licence details against the professional registers, including matching the licence holder’s name and number to the business or opportunity being promoted. The warning also indicates that reliance on search-engine results, polished websites, branding, testimonials, celebrity endorsements or claims of ASIC licensing is insufficient where firms or consumers assess legitimacy.

Key dates

2026-03-01

ASIC surveillance period began

2026-06-30

ASIC surveillance period ended

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to review whether target market determinations are narrowly drafted and contain specific reasoning on how the product fits likely objectives, financial situations, and needs.
• Firms may wish to test whether onboarding questionnaires are genuinely tailored to client circumstances and whether repeated or unlimited retakes create a weak suitability gate.
• Firms may wish to assess whether disclosures clearly explain leverage, time decay, settlement, ownership rights, custody arrangements, transferability, and all material fees or costs.
• Compliance teams may wish to review sign-up incentives, fee-free trading claims, and reward promotions to confirm they do not obscure product risk or encourage impulsive trading.
• Firms may wish to verify that product governance and distribution controls continue after onboarding through monitoring, escalation, and remediation processes.
• Compliance teams may wish to consider whether retail distribution of short-dated ETOs and futures should be restricted or more tightly segmented given ASIC’s statement that these products are unlikely to suit many retail investors.

What changed

This is not a new binding rule; it is a supervisory publication that signals ASIC’s expectations for firms offering complex or high-risk products to retail investors. ASIC says entities should ensure target market determinations are sufficiently specific, onboarding questions are tailored to client circumstances, and disclosures clearly explain the risks, costs, ownership structures, and transfer implications associated with products such as fractional shares, ETOs, and futures.