Did the Australian TV network 9News report that the Australian Securities Exchange and Reserve Bank of Australia had announced a new financial platform that could enable investors to earn 30,000 Australian dollars each month? No, that's not true: A video on Facebook that made this claim did not include a genuine 9News newscast, nor is there any record that the Securities Exchange or Reserve Bank made an announcement about such an automatic trading system. Neither 9News nor Australian government websites have published such reports. A link in the video sends users to a website promoting what appear to be courses at a supposed business school -- a frequent technique used to harvest unwary users' personal information.
The claim originated in a video (archived here) shared on Facebook on November 7, 2023, with a caption that read in part:
𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀!
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹-𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀! ...
𝗛𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟯𝟱𝟬 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟰𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Thurs Nov 9 09:13:34 UTC 2023)
The above is not a genuine 9News Australia broadcast, nor is there any record that the Australian government made such an announcement.
The 1:35-minute video opened with footage of a 9News anchor with audio that suggested he was introducing the investment opportunity. He said:
It's easy now, to start with $250 and consistently make $30,000 [AUS] every month. You'll be shocked. Now it's real. The head of the central bank and the manager of the Australian Stock Exchange have joined together and created a financial platform that trades automatically without human intervention.
As of November 10, 2023, 30,000 Australian dollars is worth just over $19,000 in U.S. currency.
A search (archived here) of the 9News website, using the keywords "Economic Society of Australia investment opportunity 30,000," did not produce any results that showed News9 ever produced such a broadcast.
After the supposed newscast, the video shared on Facebook then cut to a supposed speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe. The audio attributed to Lowe said:
After nine months of development and successful testing, we are proud to announce the launch of a new financial program that will help you increase your income to $32,000 per month. The partnership with the stock exchange will enhance the economy and lower inflation in Australia ...
Using a reverse-image search (archived here) of a screenshot taken from the video, Lead Stories determined that the video images came from Lowe's July 12, 2023, speech to a business lunch of the Economic Society of Australia, a professional association. As an official transcript shows, Lowe announced changes to the Reserve Bank's board in response to inflation concerns. Lead Stories reviewed the transcript of the 48:42-minute broadcast (archived here). Lowe said nothing about a new investment opportunity.
Similarly, searches of the Australian Stock Exchange website (archived here) and the Reserve Bank (archived here) websites, using the keywords "$30,000 investment," did not produce any results to substantiate the video's claim.
Using the keywords "Australian investment opportunity 30 000," searches of the website of the Economic Society of Australia (archived here), which hosted the luncheon Lowe addressed, showed no relevant results.
A news search of Google's index of news sites (archived here), with the keywords "Economic Society of Australia investing opportunity 30,000," also produced no results to substantiate the video's claims.
Attached to the Facebook post is a link (archived here) that reads, "Start Now" and "93% of Aussies don't know about it." It has nothing to do with an investment opportunity. When clicked on, an unrelated webpage with the URL "https://toy.splendidrice.com/" opens that appear to host business-related articles.
Lead Stories contacted 9News for a statement on the video's claim, and will update this fact check if a response is received.
We previously have debunked similar information-harvesting scams, including those that purportedly involved Elon Musk, a supposed "QuantumAI" platform and another fake investment platform.
