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Class action law firm investigates Hino over 860k vehicles sold with tampered data

Class action law firm investigates Hino over 860k vehicles sold with tampered data

An Australian class action law firm is taking on a subsidiary of Toyota over concerns that the carmaker faked data so that it could receive tax breaks from the government.

Bannister Law announced on Monday that it is investigating Hino Motor Sales Australia, which manufactures trucks and buses sold around the globe and is an affiliate of Toyota.

Hino has sold an estimated 860,000 vehicles with the promise of having low exhaust emissions and good fuel economy when the data had actually been faked.

Bannister Law said it was trying to see if Hino had breached the Road Vehicle Standards Act 2018 and the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989 and is considering launching a class action.

It comes just a few days after revelations from earlier this month that Hino Motors had falsified emissions data on some engines going back almost 20 years.

The truck-maker said an engine data falsification scandal had started as far back as 2004 and not in 2016 as previously admitted.

Globally, it’s understood there are 26 different engine types impacted by the tampered data, and 860,000 vehicles have been caught up in the scandal altogether. At least 39,000 Hino vehicles have been sold in Australia from 2012 to 2021, but it is unclear if all or just some of them were falsely represented to customers.

Hino had to recall 47,000 vehicles made between April 2017 and March this year over the data scandal. An additional 20,900 will be recalled in the near future.

Bannister Law is calling for all Australians who owned or leased a Hino vehicle at any point between 2004 and 2021 to register in an online form.

It is so far unclear which truck models were impacted by the scandal.

Just three days ago, to US law firm, Lieff Cabraser, started a class action against Hino over the same concerns.

“Lieff Cabraser is investigating reports that Hino Motors and majority Hino owner Toyota Motor Corporation (the Japanese parent of Toyota North America) have publicly admitted to intentionally cheating on their bus and truck vehicles’ emissions,” the legal company stated.

The case has been brought to the Southern District of Florida and the firm confirmed it was seeking more than $5 million in damages.

In March this year, Hino announced it had discovered widespread tampering evidence dating back to September 2016 and engaged an independent committee to investigate.

But in early August, that committee came back with a damning report that found the malpractice stretched back as far as 2004.

Investigators stated in their findings: “Hino cannot escape the determination that it made a false report.”

It was also discovered that a tax reprieve was a key motivator behind the malpractice.

Hino “aimed to achieve the fuel consumption standards in order to be eligible for tax preferential treatment but failed to achieve its goal, and thus, it engaged in misconduct by intentionally adjusting the calibration values ​​of the fuel flowmeter in order to meet the specification values ​​required. for application,” the report also stated.

Data was also falsified by measuring “the idling fuel flow quantity before the fuel flow quantity was stabilized and engaged in misconduct by intentionally selecting advantageous fuel consumption data”.

The findings, led by committee chairman Kazuo Sakakibara, claimed employees were not offered “psychological safety” and were “unable to change” due to the company’s past successes.

Representatives at Hino said the scandal was brought on by an “environment where engineers did not feel able to challenge superiors”.

Hino’s president Satoshi Ogiso apologized to reporters after the report’s bombshell findings, claiming the company’s management took its responsibilities and public image seriously.

Mr Ogiso said he received a message from Toyota president Akio Toyoda, who reeled at the scandal, accusing Hino of betraying the trust of company stakeholders.

In a statement, Hino said it “deeply apologizes for any inconvenience caused to its customers, shareholders, investors and other stakeholders”.

“Hino is currently investigating the impact of these matters on its earnings and will disclose any updates as appropriate in a timely manner,” it added.

News.com.au has contacted Hino for comment.

Bannister Law won the recent class action against Toyota for DPF issues and also won cases against Volkswagen and Audi. It is currently conducting a class action against Mitsubishi.

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F45 founder sells home amid class action investigations after stock market plunge

F45 founder sells home amid class action investigations after stock market plunge

A struggling Australian fitness franchise that has been savaged on the stock markets is now facing not one, but five potential lawsuits.

F45 Training Holdings Inc, known for its high intensity interval training (HIIT) classes, was at first an Australian success story after hitting the New York Stock Exchange in July last year and raking in $500 million on the first day.

But two weeks ago things drastically changed; the company’s founder and CEO Adam Gilchrist stepped down while 110 employees were laid off and expansion plans were slashed significantly.

Stock prices plunged off the back of the news and dipped to 62 per cent of its original price at its lowest, when it sank to $US1.35 ($A1.90) on July 27.

At time of writing, according to MarketWatch, F45 stock was trading at $US2.15 ($A3) compared to its listing price of $US16 ($A22.50) just a year earlier.

Now five heavyweight class action law firms from the US are calling for investors to come forward to explore the possibility of filing a class action.

The firms are investigating whether F45 misrepresented itself to investors and the most recent legal firm only announced it was investigating the company on Friday.

In July last year at its initial public offering, F45 sold 18.75 million shares of stock priced at $US16.00 per share.

It had a stunning $US1.46 billion ($A2 billion) market capitalization however that has since slipped to $US183.6 million ($A258.60).

In May, F45 thought it had secured a $US250 million ($A350 million) line of credit to keep rapidly expanding but by the next investor’s meeting in July, this had failed through.

But during the July trading update, investors learned that credit line would not be available.

After planning to roll out 1500 new franchises this year F45 will instead aim for between 350 and 450 and its forecasted revenue has dropped from $US275 million ($A387 million) to $US130 million ($A182 million).

F45 fitness founder and CEO Adam Gilchrist – not to be confused with the cricket player of the same name – reportedly immediately listed his house on the market after the downfall.

Coincidentally, the same weekend that another law firm announced it was investigating the possibility of a class action, Mr Gilchrist successfully sold his $A14 million Sydney home.

Mr Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch founded the company in 2013 in the Sydney suburb of Paddington but Mr Deutsch left in February 2020 and said he was devastated to hear what had happened since then.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this,” Mr Deutsch wrote on Instagram after the shock news of the lay-offs. “When I exited, and sold out of F45, I left a healthy, phenomenal, beast of a business. All the way from the company culture to the heart beat of the business… The workouts. F45 was special.

“I genuinely hope all of the 110 laid-off staff, find happiness and opportunities elsewhere.”

News.com.au has contacted F45 for comment.

On Friday, US law firm Labaton Sucharow called for investors to get in touch, the latest in a string of legal firms circling F45 like sharks.

Prior to that, Schall Law Firm, a US shareholder rights litigation firm, announced last Tuesday that it was investigating F45 “for violations of the securities laws”.

Then there was Bragar Eagle & Squire, PC, another shareholder rights specialist, which started its own investigation a day later.

Bragar Eagel & Squire stated the company’s revenue was “down significantly” compared to what was previously promised to investors.

James Wilson of Faruqi & Faruqi also called for investors who have “suffered losses exceeding $US50,000 ($A70,450) investing in F45 Training stock or options”.

Portnoy Law Firm also weighed in, saying it was investigating “possible securities fraud” and that it would provide a “complimentary case evaluation and discuss investors’ options for pursuing claims to recover their losses”.

Embattled CEO sells home

Mr Gilchrist reportedly listed his Sydney mansion, located in Freshwater in the city’s northern beaches region, on the market following his company’s stock crash.

Over the weekend, it’s understood to be have been sold.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that strict gag orders prevented the real estate agents from disclosing its final price.

However, they did confirm it sold for more than he bought it for in 2019, which was $14 million.

Realestate.com.au reported that it sold more than $1 million over the reserve.

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Evergrande investor Lin Ho Man takes collapsing company to court over $158m debt

Evergrande investor Lin Ho Man takes collapsing company to court over $158m debt

A young millennial is threatening the existence of a multi-billion dollar Chinese property developer.

In 2021, real estate heavyweight Evergrande earned the unwelcome title of the world’s most indebted real estate firm after racking up staggering debts of around $A408 billion.

Evergrande’s share price tanked and the firm missed a string of payment deadlines, which eventually saw it officially declared in default for the first time in December.

And now a young 30-year-old investor — who Bloomberg reported is “politically connected” — is taking the conglomerate on in the High Court of Hong Kong.

Lin Ho Man claims Evergrande owes him HK$862.5 million ($158 million) because of money he invested through his business.

He has applied for a winding up order, calling for the company to be wound up unless they cough up the funds to pay him back.

In order for Evergrande’s shares to be able to trade, Mr Lin’s lawsuit has to be resolved, either by being mediated to lead to dismissal, or for him to withdraw the case.

Although Evergrande has been in hot water with creditors and customers in recent months, nobody has reportedly gone as far as demanding the company be liquidated.

Mr Lin runs a fintech company called Top ShineGlobal which invested millions for a 0.46 per cent stake in Fangchebao, Evergrande’s automobile and real estate arm in March 2021.

Then Triumph Roc International, another one of Lin’s investment holding companies which he acted as guarantor for, invested the same amount for a separate 0.46 per cent stake.

Just a few months later, the extent of Evergrande’s financial woes became well-known.

Evergrande said it will oppose the legal case “vigorously” and added that this shouldn’t impact the company’s restructuring plans or timetable.

Mr Lin’s case has already had a preliminary hearing earlier in August and the next court session is happening later this month.

Evergrande, one of China’s biggest developers, has scrambled to offload assets in recent months, with chairman Hui Ka Yan paying off some of its debts using his personal wealth.

Its troubles are emblematic of the problems rippling across China’s massive property sector, with smaller companies also defaulting on loans and others struggling to raise cash.

Chinese creditors have sued Evergrande for more than $US13 billion in allegedly overdue payments, the Financial Times reports.

According to documents seen by the publication, a Chinese court has accepted a whopping 367 cases against Evergrande.

Insiders claiming it is one of the biggest indicators yet that local creditors have lost confidence in the firm’s ability to handle the ongoing crisis.

Shares in the company have been halted since March.

— With Alexis Carey

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Capel Court scammers steal $250k from NSW widow, $2.56m stolen altogether

Capel Court scammers steal $250k from NSW widow, $2.56m stolen altogether

A group of sophisticated scammers have stolen a quarter of a million dollars from a widow in NSW.

Lily*, a retiree from the NSW Mid North Coast near Port Macquarie, has been left reeling after learning she poured her $250,000 fortune into a fake investment scam.

The woman’s term deposit account was maturing and she was searching for a better return on her money.

In February this year, she was paying for her groceries at her local Woolworths when she picked up a magazine that had an advertisement inside it for an investment company called Capel Court.

“I contacted Capel Court as a result of the advert in the publication I’d seen, I’d noted the phone number and I rang them,” Lily recalled.

The so-called investment company had an online login portal and multiple employees with mobile and office phone numbers listed.

After going back and forth with company representatives for several weeks, including having a solicitor look things over, Lily eventually transferred her money in March believing she was investing in a European Investment Bank government bond.

Just a few months later news.com.au exposed that the Capel Court investment scheme was a sham. Including Lily’s losses, scammers have stolen at least $2.5 million that news.com.au knows of from six Australian victims. The highest individual loss totaled $750,000 and even an accountant in his 40s fell for the scheme.

After coming across the article and realizing she had been duped, Lily said, “I was stone cold, absolutely shocked. Probably for two weeks I cried on and off.”

Lily doesn’t have children and her husband has passed away so she was planning to leave whatever was left of her life savings to medical research to help cancer and Alzheimer’s patients.

She spoke to two different scammers who called themselves David Jones and Stephen Jones who answered all her questions and guided her through the process.

They promised her a 6.45 per cent return on her investment, with documents to back that up, which would mean she would be receiving $16,000 per year from dividends.

They tried to pressure her into depositing the money by saying there were limited spots available in the bonds fund as it was oversubscribed.

Lily almost wasn’t able to deposit her money because of the flooding along the east coast earlier this year.

“The flooding came between where I lived and where the bank was,” she said.

During the floods, the scammers called her up several times trying to get her to send the $250,000 onto them.

Finally, on March 10, Lily went into her local Westpac branch and by teletransfer, she moved $250,000 into a bank account for an instant payment system called Cuscal.

She claims bank staff didn’t ask questions and partly blames them for this unfortunate situation.

“I didn’t have any more contact [with the scammers] after everything was signed and sealed,” she said.

Have a similar story? Get-in-touch | [email protected]

In May, Lily learned she had been scammed after reading news.com.au’s previous articles.

Sure enough, when she went on the website had disappeared and she wasn’t able to get in touch with David or Stephen Jones.

“I’ve had a shocking two and a half months. I have to be [upbeat] otherwise I’d be so depressed I’d probably top myself,” she said.

Westpac wouldn’t comment on Lily’s individual case citing privacy reasons. They did not respond to questions about how they allowed an elderly woman to transfer $250,000 in one payment without raising the alarm.

“There has been a rise in investment scam activity, and we encourage all Australians to be vigilant,” a bank spokesperson said.

“Westpac invests heavily in scam prevention and has robust processes in place to alert and protect customers. We work hard to recover money for customers where possible.

“Investment scams often promise low risk for high returns. We encourage people to do their research and seek independent financial advice before making an investment.”

Sadly, this is not the first time this scamming syndicate has duped Australians out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

News.com.au has previously reported on this same group of scammers, who posed as Barclays and Macquarie Bank and EQR Securities.

They scammed one Melbourne man out of $700,000, another schoolteacher out of $500,000, a retired couple lost $200,000 and an accountant fell for it too, losing $160,000. Another widow lost $750,000.

In October last year, retired Queensland couple Antje and Bardhold Blecken had $200,000 stolen from them when they mistakenly believed they were investing in a Barclays Bank term deposit.

Then in March, Melbourne man Andy* thought he was investing $700,000 into bonds with Capel Court. It was fake and he lost his life savings.

Robert*, an accountant, also sank $160,000 into the fraudulent Capel Court group while NSW couple Jody and Corey Bridges lost $500,000 to the same scam.

Michelle Lowry transferred $750,000 to EQR Securities in December last year, which also turned out to be fake.

News.com.au can definitively link these separate scam websites because the same aliases and mobile numbers were used by the fraudsters.

The scammers used multiple aliases including William Hughes, Ben Davis, Jacob Price, Oliver James and of course David Jones.

These particular scammers are fans of rapid payment platforms like Cuscal, Money Tech/Monoova and also cryptocurrency platforms including Binance, TechMarket AU/ED Australia and ElBaite. They have also used bank accounts through the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Citibank and NAB to channel money. It’s understood many of these accounts are under investigation.

In May, news.com.au reported on Melbourne widow Jacomi Du Preez, who lost $760,000 from the life insurance payout of her husband in an elaborate Macquarie Bank term deposit website that turned out to be fake.

Luckily, Ms Du Preez realized it was a scam within a day and was able to recover all her money.

A cyber security expert, Nick Savvides, told news.com.au these particular scams are “sophisticated” and “well-resourced”.

He believes it is likely they had a group of at least 20 people working together to steal large sums of money.

The money has probably ended up overseas and could be part of an organized crime gang.

Names withheld over privacy concerns

[email protected]

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CBA boss warns of ‘short sharp contraction’ headed for Australian economy

CBA boss warns of 'short sharp contraction' headed for Australian economy

The boss of Australia’s largest bank has warned that the economy is already declining and that a “short, sharp contraction” is on the way.

Late on Wednesday, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Matt Comyn, delivered the company’s annual results.

Although the CBA made an eye-watering $9.6 billion in profit over the last financial year, Mr Comyn warned that tougher times were on the horizon.

He told the Australian Financial Review that he predicted “a short, sharp contraction in the Australian economy.”

“We are definitely expecting a more challenging year ahead than we have seen in the last 12 months,” he added.

However, in some good news, the banking CEO believes a contraction is almost a certainty but a full-blown recession is less likely.

Australia is in the throes of an economic crisis as inflation rose to 6.1 per cent last month, the highest level it’s been for 20 years.

And for the first time in more than a decade, Australia’s central bank has had no choice but to increase the cash rate in a bid to stop rampant inflation.

For the last four consecutive months, the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased interest rates by 1.75 percentage points and Mr Comyn more rate increases will come.

Mr Comyn told the publication his bank predicts the cash rate to increase by another 75 basis points to sit at 2.6 per cent.

The cash rate is currently 1.85 per cent.

Once the cash rate hits 2.6 per cent, Mr Comyn said the economy would experience a contraction of 1.5 per cent.

He said he “hoped” that once the cash rate reached this point it would be enough to curb spending, adding “We need to see a slowdown in demand.”

Speaking to the ABC, Mr Comyn said “We do forecast recessions in the US, UK and Europe. We don’t believe that that’s the likely outcome in Australia.”

Already there are signs that Australians are splashing their cash less.

Mr Comyn said their customer data shows that spending is falling for both debit and credit cards.

This was significantly more for customers who had mortgages.

“It’s quite early post the immediate rate rises, [but] we are already seeing a downturn in spending across our customer base, both from a debt and credit perspective,” he said.

“Of course, that’s more pronounced with customers who have a home loan, and we expect that it will continue throughout the course of the calendar year.”

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Penfolds, Treasury Wine Estates wins copycat Chinese court case against Rush Rich

Penfolds, Treasury Wine Estates wins copycat Chinese court case against Rush Rich

An Australian wine company has won a “landmark” court case in China after more than six years of fighting a copycat brand.

Treasury Wine Estates owns and produces a number of well-known wine labels including Penfolds and Wolf Blass. However, the issue arose when company Rush Rich used part of the Penfolds branding on its own bottles.

After six years of fighting, on Wednesday, the Supreme People’s Court of China ruled in Treasury’s favor, finding that the other wine company had acted in “bad faith” against them.

The court found that Chinese-Australian company Rush Rich improperly used a Chinese character which was a copyright breach of the Penfolds brand.

This was “illicit conduct”, according to the court.

Treasury Wine Estates said the other company had tried to “exploit” its brand and was happy about the decision from the Chinese court, calling it a “landmark win”.

The court ruled that Rush Rich’s registration of the Chinese character mark for Penfolds Winery was invalid.

“We welcome the Judgment by the Supreme People’s Court of China and thank the Chinese authorities for their continued support in protecting the rights of luxury brand owners,” Penfolds managing director Tom King said.

Following its “longstanding battle” with Rush Rich, Treasury said it takes a “zero tolerance approach” to copyright breaches.

Anna Olsen, global director of intellectual property for Treasury Wine Estates, said in a statement: “Protecting the integrity of our historic brands against trademark piracy and misappropriation has always been a global priority.

“We’ll spare no effort to protect our brands and will pursue our rights to the highest courts where necessary.

“This case shows we won’t tolerate attempts to exploit and infringe the intellectual property rights and reputation of brands in the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio.”

Government regulator Wine Australia was also happy with the court case outcome as it has been working hard to maintain the international reputation of Australian wine.

The case is timely as Penfolds is looking to launch its wine in China.

In 2019, Rush Rich was also slammed with a massive fine in Australia’s Federal Court after being found to have infringed on several trademarks of Treasury Wine Estates.

The company had to pay $375,000 in compensation and was barred from using the images again.

Before the Australian Federal Court case, Treasury Wine Estates took Rush Rich to the Shanghai Pudong Court.

That court also ruled in favor of Treasury Wine Estates and ordered Rush Rich to pay back 2,000,000 Chinese yuan ($A426,000 at the time).

Read related topics:China

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Suburbs struggling the most amid RBA’s interest rate hikes revealed

Suburbs struggling the most amid RBA's interest rate hikes revealed

An estimated one in five mortgage holders – or 551,000 Australians – will struggle to pay back their mortgage if interest rates continue to rise as expected.

Comparison site Finder found a whopping 20 per cent of mortgage holders will be in serious mortgage distress if their home loan interest payments increase by three per cent. Home loans have already increased by 1.75 per cent since May.

It comes as separate data from S&P Global revealed which suburbs in Australia are most at risk of defaulting on their home loans.

The Northern Territory came out as the worst state, with the highest percentage of mortgage holders more than 30 days behind on payments.

A fringe suburb in Perth topped the list in terms of debt overdue to the bank, while Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide as well as some regional areas also received a poor rating.

Of even more concern was that the research was conducted before the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) starting increasing the cash rate, meaning these areas will be even more at risk of defaulting on their loans now.

For four consecutive months the RBA has hiked interest rates. Last week, after its August meeting, the central bank brought up the cash rate to 1.85 per cent.

The cash rate has already risen by 1.75 percentage points since May, following two years of interest rates sitting at a record low of 0.1 per cent.

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According to S&P Global, rising mortgage repayments have hit suburbs on the fringes of big cities the hardest.

Their research measured the weighted average of arrears more than 30 days past due on residential mortgage loans in publicly and privately rated Australian transactions.

The Perth suburb of Maddington, 20km from the city centre, topped the list of “Worst performing postcodes” in the report.

As of early April, 4.67 per cent of homeowners in Maddington are in arrears.

That was closely followed by Dolls Point, located in southern Sydney.

Of the mortgaged houses in that NSW suburb, 4.33 per cent are behind on payments.

In third place was another WA postcode, Byford, in Perth’s southeastern edge, with an arrears percentage of 4.16 per cent.

Western Australia had one more suburb on the list – Ballidu in the Central Midlands – while NSW had a total of four.

Bankstown and Castlereagh, from Sydney’s west and southwest, were also experiencing substantial pressure. Katoomba from the Blue Mountains, south of Sydney, also earned a spot in the report.

Victoria, Queensland and South Australia each had one suburb on the list – Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north, Barkly in Queensland’s Mout Isa region and Hackham, an outer suburb of Adelaide.

A breakdown of each state showed that the Northern Territory was the most behind in its mortgage repayments, at a rate of 1.75 per cent.

Western Australia came in at 1.40 per cent, as of April this year, before interest rates started to be hiked.

Victoria received a score of 0.87 per cent while 0.85 per cent of NSW mortgage holders were also in mortgage arrears.

The ACT fared the best, with an arrears rate of only 0.33 per cent.

Overall, the national average was 0.71 per cent for Australia’s arrears rate, as of April.

“The swift pace of interest rate rises will create debt-serviceability pressures for households with less liquidity buffers and higher leverage,” the report noted, forecasting that sometime in the third quarter of this year a higher arrears rate would show up in new monthly date .

Finder also released a damning statistic about the state of Australia’s home loan debt.

A recent survey conducted last month concluded that more than half a million homeowners would be “on the brink” if interest rates rose by three per cent.

Of those, 145,000 Australis said they would consider selling their home if rates jumped because they would “struggle a lot” to repay them. That represents about five per cent of Australia’s mortgage holders.

The survey also found that 14 per cent of admitted respondents they might fall behind on their repayments or other bills.

Nearly half (48 per cent) would be able to manage, but would have to cut down on their spending, according to Finder.

Only a quarter of participants said a rate rise would not change their lifestyle or spending habits at all.

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Thousands of businesses impacted by Tyro EFTPOS outage urged to register to class action

Thousands of businesses impacted by Tyro EFTPOS outage urged to register to class action

Christine Hera-Singh found it difficult to keep her bakery along the Great Ocean Road afloat during Covid-19 lockdowns and border closures.

The mum-of-one had pinned her hopes on the Christmas rush in late 2020 and early 2021 and for a while, her South Australian-based business, Meningie Bakery, was flourishing.

But then in January last year, the bakery’s credit card terminals stopped working for two weeks straight.

“It hit dead around the Christmas break, we had customers walking out, they didn’t have cash, it was an absolute nightmare,” Ms Hera-Singh told news.com.au.

It turned out the company that she rented her EFTPOS machines from, Tyro, had experienced a national outage that lasted for a fortnight.

Overall, Ms Hera-Singh estimates she lost $60,000 from the two week outage.

Across the country, at least 11,000 companies were impacted — the majority of them small businesses like hers.

Now, 18 months since the malfunction, outraged merchants have fought back by launching a class action against Tyro.

According to a notice from the Federal Court, affected business owners now have three months to register their case if they hope to receive compensation in the event they win the lawsuit. The registrations opened last week at www.tyroclassaction.com.au and close on October 30.

Ms Hera-Singh said: “We were losing heaps of customers. We were left in this huge dilemma.

“I’m a small business owner, it’s hard.”

The baker explained how the Covid-19 outbreak meant that society had gone largely cashless, making it even harder to survive during those two weeks.

By way of compensation, she said Tyro waived the rent on her machines for a month — which wasn’t nearly enough.

Her terminals stopped working on January 7 and only came back online by January 21, a whole 14 days later.

Across Australia, outages were first reported from January 5 due to a glitch in the coding and it took until late that month for all machines to operate normally again.

In a statement to news.com.au, Tyro did not acknowledge the class action law suit but said it had introduced a compensation program to make up for the financial losses.

“Following the terminal connectivity incident experienced in January 2021, Tyro has conducted a remediation program whereby all impacted merchants have been contacted directly by Tyro and given the opportunity to claim any financial losses caused by the connectivity incident,” a spokesperson said.

Bannister Law started the class action in October last year and Court House Capital is funding the case.

According to Bannister Law, most affected businesses lost between $5,00 to $40,000 from the outage, but there were several outliers like Ms Hera-Singh’s bakery. Some businesses that had multiple machines lost as much as $100,000.

Charles Bannister, Principal at Bannister Law, told news.com.au should businesses fail to register in the next three months, they wouldn’t be entitled to any compensation if his firm won the court case.

“The outage occurred during a crucial period, being a time when everyone had come out of lockdowns and there was a general reluctance to accept cash,” he told news.com.au.

“That merchants were unable to use their EFTPOS machines for days or weeks was, for many merchants, catastrophic.

“There are approximately 11,000 businesses affected by this outage. If they do not register, they will not be entitled to receive a share of the proceeds of any funds received should the proceedings settle, subject to Court approval.”

Last week, a whopping 11,000 letters were sent out to the impacted business owners inviting them to register.

Another impacted business was Highett RSL, in Melbourne’s southeast, which estimated it lost around $10,000.

Gavin Williams, the pub’s general manager, said the timing couldn’t have been worse as Melbourne had just come out of their four month lockdown in the winter of 2020 and they needed to recoup their losses.

“There were obviously lockdowns and all that in Melbourne that was going on,” he told news.com.au.

“People wanted to use credit cards and EFTPOS cards, [but by then] all our signage was to use your cards.”

Before Covid he estimates that half of his customers used cash while the other half used cards but the pandemic changed that. Around 70 per cent of customers now use cards, making it harder for people to buy drinks when credit card machines were down.

I paid $49 per month for an EFTPOS terminal and this fee was waived for the month of January.

To date, that is the only compensation the business has received, he said.

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Phone company Circles. Life fined $300k by telco regulator over customer breaches

Phone company Circles. Life fined $300k by telco regulator over customer breaches

A telco company has been slapped with a $300,000 fine because it exposed nearly 2000 Australians to potential scammers.

Circles Australia Pty Limited, trading as Circles.Life, must pay a $199,800 infringement notice as well as $100,000 in compensation to fraud victims.

On Tuesday morning, the telco regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA), announced the hefty costs.

Circles.Life breached the rules for phone number transfers a whopping 1,787 times when it sold SIM cards in retail stores between August and December 2021, according to the regulator.

The phone company was found to have failed to properly check the identity of purchasers, which meant cyber criminals then “took advantage of these lapses”.

As a result, 42 consumers experienced “fraud-related issues” which included their email and bank accounts being breached.

Of those, at least seven lost money to scammers.

The costly penalty is part of the ACMA’s broader crackdown on the telco industry, after implementing sweeping changes last month to combat phone scams which are on the rise.

The phone company should have adhered to multi-factor identification rules, according to ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

“It is deeply concerning that Circles.Life did not have proper processes in place for such a long period and that so many people were affected or put at risk of identity theft and fraud,” she said.

“Combating these types of scams requires concerted action by all telcos and one weak link exposes all consumers to harm.

“It is the customers of other telcos who have fallen victim in this case by having their number transferred to Circles.Life without their knowledge.”

The ACMA also added that while the breaches should not have occurred, Circles.Life “responded quickly” when they realized the extent of the problem.

News.com.au has contacted Circles.Life for comment.

In a statement, the company said it had protocols in place for a one-time password verification for online port-ins, but the same rules didn’t apply for SIMs purchased at brick and mortar stores.

In April, the ACMA announced that phone companies will need stronger customer identity checks for “high-risk transactions” like SIM swaps, account changes or switching providers.

The new requirements, called the Telecommunications Service Provider (Customer Identity Authentication) Determination 2022, came into effect on June 30.

Since then, telcos must use multi-factor authentication of their customers’ identities such as confirming personal information and responding with a one-time code, similar to how banks operate. Before the changes, telcos mostly only required a customer’s name, phone number, date of birth and address to authorize a change.

The ACMA warned that noncompliance can lead to “strong action” including “pursuit of significant civil penalties” like in the case of Circles.Life and also potential Federal Court proceedings.

News.com.au has extensively reported on a particularly ominous phone scam known as a SIM swap hack in the past.

A SIM swap hack is when a cyber criminal ports – or re-routes – the victim’s mobile number onto their own phone, allowing them to intercept text messages and reset passwords to things like bank accounts.

In many cases, scammers were able to do so by impersonating the customer to their telco provider, then convincing the company to switch the SIM card over to an eSIM card.

Often the scammers will transfer the phone number to another provider to make it harder for victims to regain control of their account.

News.com.au reported on a Sydney man waking up to find $52,000 stolen from him by SIM hackers, while an Adelaide schoolteacher lost her entire life savings, $43,000, from a similar order.

Between 1 January and 30 September last year, there were at least 510 incidents of reported SIM swaps, resulting in 163 cases of financial loss, according to the ACMA.

These losses amounted to $4.68 million, with the largest single reported loss being $463,782.

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Entertainment

James Packer parties with young women in bikinis on superyacht

James Packer parties with young women in bikinis on superyacht

Australian billionaire James Packer has been photographed on a yacht hanging out with young bikini-clad women.

On Thursday, Mr Packer was seen enjoying his $250 million superyacht out in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian coast.

The Australian rich lister was there with two unknown women and an unknown man.

American film director Brett Ratner, 53, was also in attendance, who has directed Hollywood movies including X-Men and the Rush Hour franchise.

In one instance, Mr Packer 54, was photographed clasping the hand of a blonde woman while also leaning in to kiss her on the cheek.

At another point, one of the women was spotted drinking and dancing on the boat.

Mr Packer wore sunglasses and a dark blue T-shirt and black shorts while his friend Mr Ratner had a gray T-shirt on.

The Aussie business has been spotted spending a lot of time on his superyacht in the past few months.

In July, it was revealed that Danish model Josefine Hanning Jensen had been on-board the billionaire’s superyacht since at least July 6.

There’s no word yet on whether Packer and Jensen are romantically linked, or whether she will join him when he heads back to Sydney.

It’s unclear whether the two women spotted on the boat on Thursday are also models.

As the son of media head honcho Kerry Packer, James Packer has a net worth of US$1.5 billion (A$2.17 billion) according to Forbes.

Two months ago, Mr Packer revealed he had been seeking to lose weight after telling The Weekend Australian last month that he was ready to start the “third act” of his life as he looks towards a return to Australia.

“I’m roughly 130kg now and want to be back to 100kg by the end of 2022,” Packer told the publication.

speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald around the same time, Packer divulged he was down 33kg after quitting alcohol, limiting his calorie intake and exercising daily.

Mr Packer told the newspaper his life was “pretty good right now”, adding: “My mental health is the best it’s ever been.”

He also revealed his mental health had also taken a turn, having quit the antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs he was taking.

With the $8.9 billion sale of his company shares to US private equity firm Blackstone’s finalized on June 24, which saw Packer pocket an enormous $3.36 billion, he’s now ready to plan his return home.

“I want to swim with my kids at Bondi when we’re all in Sydney together next year and be 100kg,” he said from his home in Mexico.

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