Terrorists are using pre-paid gift and travel cards to shuffle money throughout Australia, travel to Middle East conflict zones and bankroll international attacks.
More than 10 million "stored value cards" are active in Australia - worth upwards of $1.5 billion - and are highly vulnerable to criminal exploitation, a report has found.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan said given the convenience of the readily available cards, it was no surprise criminals and terrorists were exploiting the seemingly innocent technology for ill-gotten gains.
"Any way you can move money around they're going to look to exploit, whether it be cash, whether it be credit cards, whether it be any other instrument within our financial system and that includes pre-paid cards," he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.
A report released by intelligence agency AUSTRAC has identified 12 instances within two years where the cards were highly likely to have been used to finance terrorism.
They involve more than $170,000 loaded onto travel cards in Australia and redeemed in countries bordering Syria including Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
AUSTRAC traced another 66 suspicious transactions including stored value cards redeemed in jurisdictions considered high risk for terrorism financing or transit hubs for terrorism.
"Certainly these cards have been used for terrorists who have left Australia to access that money overseas, and that's one of the vulnerabilities highlighted by the report," Mr Keenan said.
"Internationally, we have seen SVCs used to fund terrorist attacks, including the horrific terrorism attacks in Paris in November 2015."
The most prevalent offences identified through the report were money laundering, cyber-enabled fraud, other frauds (including topping SVCs up with lost, stolen or fake credit cards) as well as tax evasion.
Other suspicious activities linked to the cards include scams (primarily suspected romance schemes) and the offshore loading and redemption of SVCs by unknown third parties.
"The most significant potential consequence (of the cards) is the threat to national and international security if used to facilitate terrorism financing," the AUSTRAC report said.
"Particularly in sustaining and enabling the activities of Australian foreign terrorist fighters."
AUSTRAC chief executive Paul Jevtovic said stored value cards which could be loaded, reloaded and redeemed in cash domestically carried a higher level of risk than those which could not.
So too did cards which could be redeemed overseas, such as pre-paid travel cards, as opposed to those which could only be used in Australia.
Mr Jevtovic urged Australian businesses offering the cards to protect themselves and the community from criminal misuse.
"I encourage all Australian businesses that issue SVCs to familiarise themselves with this risk assessment to ensure their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing systems and processes are effective," he said.
Share
