ASIC awards scam prizes

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has launched “Pie in the Sky” awards for the scams of the year. The top prize for 2002 goes to a con artist with the name of Adam Petersen who marketed a financial instruments trading program which allegedly achieved profits of over 890 per cent in 15 years.

Runners-up for the inaugural PITS awards included “James”, a London-based individual offering a share of an $8.5 million bank account of a dead person with the same name as the victim; “Dimitry”, who offered land for sale in a supposed business centre in Russia; and “Jason”, who assured investors of a 1,000 per cent return after attending his forex trading course. ASIC has initiated the awards as part of its ongoing program to alert people to investment scams.