Searcher wins Gull

INTERNET searcher Andrew Callaghan has won the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Gull Award for September.

The Gull Award is awarded to people who find scams aimed at the truly gullible.

Mr Callaghan blew the whistle on a scam in which bank customers received a telephone call from someone claiming to work in their bank.

The caller claims the bank is having difficulty with Y2K and tells the customer they can transfer their money into a ‘safe’ account until the bank is Y2K compliant.

The customer is asked to provide their account information and an authorisation to transfer their funds to the safe account.

Of course, the account is anything but ‘safe’.

“I run a company that searches the Internet for information that companies or individuals ask for,” Mr Callaghan said.

“My specialty is finance so I find out about all sorts of scams around the world.”