New financial crime guides will help your business to identify and stop criminal activity. These guides provide you with patterns and indicators to understand, identify and report suspicious financial activity for a range of serious and organised crimes.

Detecting and stopping ransomware

This financial crime guide includes practical information and key indicators to help your business understand, identify and report suspicious activity where someone could be the target of a ransomware payment, or trying to profit from a ransomware payment.

Cybercriminals try to infect a computer or network, and then demand a ransom payment to unlock or decrypt the victim’s computer system. These attacks can disrupt businesses and critical services, and cost significant time and resources to recover from.

Download the Financial crime guide – Detecting and stopping ransomware (PDF, 1.77MB)

Preventing the criminal abuse of digital currencies

This guide provides financial indicators to help businesses, including digital currency exchange providers, recognise and report criminal activity through digital currencies.

Digital currencies are increasing in value and acceptance as Australians have rapidly taken up this new technology. Digital currencies and blockchain technology enable digital transactions and financial products and services in new online networks, environments and marketplaces.

Criminals are attempting to take advantage of the rapid take-up of digital currencies to commit crimes and hide from law enforcement. The pseudo-anonymous and borderless nature of digital currencies can make them a risk for criminal activity including money laundering, terrorism financing, ransomware and more.

Download the Financial crime guide – Preventing the criminal abuse of digital currencies (PDF, 1.74MB)

What you need to do

Use the behavioural patterns and financial indicators provided in these reports to identify if you need to carry out additional customer checks (enhanced customer due diligence) and if a suspicious matter report (SMR) needs to be submitted to AUSTRAC.

For more information on SMRs and your reporting obligations, please see the suspicious matter reports page.