SA Footy

Booney wrote:ASX falling to pieces on the back of Chinese group Evergrande looking like defaulting on $300bn (US) of debt.

Iron ore prices plummeting, this is going to be a big one....

Booney wrote:ASX falling to pieces on the back of Chinese group Evergrande looking like defaulting on $300bn (US) of debt.

Iron ore prices plummeting, this is going to be a big one....

whufc wrote:

Booney wrote:ASX falling to pieces on the back of Chinese group Evergrande looking like defaulting on $300bn (US) of debt.

Iron ore prices plummeting, this is going to be a big one....

Excuse my lack of financial intellect. What does this mean for the average punter trying to live a normal life?

whufc wrote:

Booney wrote:ASX falling to pieces on the back of Chinese group Evergrande looking like defaulting on $300bn (US) of debt.

Iron ore prices plummeting, this is going to be a big one....

Excuse my lack of financial intellect. What does this mean for the average punter trying to live a normal life?

Trader wrote:

whufc wrote:

Booney wrote:ASX falling to pieces on the back of Chinese group Evergrande looking like defaulting on $300bn (US) of debt.

Iron ore prices plummeting, this is going to be a big one....

Excuse my lack of financial intellect. What does this mean for the average punter trying to live a normal life?

It was 4 years ago, don't worry about it.

Jimmy_041 wrote:U
The trick is when to pull out

am Bays wrote:

Jimmy_041 wrote:U
The trick is when to pull out

A timeless question...

News

Australians lose $7 million in Facebook scam using fake investment expert Tom Piotrowski
Dozens of Australians have lost millions of dollars in a scam that used the image of NAB and CommSec investment guru Tom Piotrowski.

Stephen Drill

January 31, 2026 - 3:21PM
National News Network

A single mother who lost her life savings of $150,000 is among a group of victims fighting back against a Facebook scam that used the image of NAB and CommSec investment guru Tom Piotrowski.

An investigation can reveal that 70 Australian victims have lost more than $7 million to the Tom Piotrowski share trading scam but Facebook owner Meta has been accused of failing to deal with the issue.

It comes as internal Meta documents reveal that the company has been making $3 billion - or 19 per cent of its revenue - from scam, illegal gambling, and pornography advertisements from companies based in China.

Meta had launched a crackdown on the scam advertisements but then “paused” the program.

Piotrowski, who has offered share market updates on television for decades, and has moved from CommSec to NAB this week warned people his image was being used fraudulently.

“I will never contact people directly about an investment opportunity or promise guaranteed returns from a single company. Both are red flags of a scam,” he said.

“We also suggest people seek independent legal advice or financial advice from an ASIC‑registered advisor and adjust their social media and WhatsApp settings to limit unwanted ads and block unknown numbers.”

The Piotrowski scam is the latest celebrity rip off on Facebook, with mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, and television stars Eddie McGuire and David Koch also having their images used by scammers.

Australian Banking Association CEO Simon Birmingham said it was “reprehensible” that the Tom Piotrowski scam has been operating across two of Meta’s platforms.

“Sadly, this looks like another example of Meta profiting from scam advertisements while Australians are losing their life savings,” he said.

“Meta must immediately investigate this scam on their platforms and urgently act to remove it before it causes any more harm.”

Meta said in a statement that it had “removed” the Piotrowski ads from their platforms, but victims claim the scammers were now simply using another economist to run the same scheme.

“From July 2024 to October 2025, reports from users about scam ads have declined by more than 50%, and, in 2025, we removed more than 134 million pieces of scam ad content,” Meta said.

“In addition to removing scam content outright, we also incorporate people’s feedback to better understand their experiences and identify situations in which it may not be immediately obvious that something is a scam.”

The company claimed that reports based on internal Meta documents that it had earned $3 billion a year from scam, illegal gambling and pornography advertisements were “rough and overly inclusive”.

Kristy Holden, 56, is now living with her children in Queensland, because she was duped into pouring her life savings of $150,000 into the Piotrowski scam.

That money had come from the sale of her home, which she had intended to give to her daughter to build a granny flat on her property.

“I’m in one of the grandchildren’s rooms and they are sharing,” she said.

She said it was “embarrassing” and was speaking out to prevent others from being scammed.
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Sajjad Ahmad tipped $90,000 into the scam which he believed because he previously had seen Piotrowski give advice on television.

He said he had approached CommSec, where Piotrowski was working, to ask if it was genuine but received no response.

“I thought it was the real Tom Piotrowski,” he said.

Ahmad, 55, of Darwin, hit out at Facebook.

“They have done absolutely nothing,” he said.

Mick and Trish Dunn are now living in a caravan in Hervey Bay, Queensland after torching more than $108,000 on the scam.

The couple said the scammers, who posed as Piotrowski, groomed them.

“It started out as little as $500. We made about 14 per cent and then they said this is the one you will make money on. They promised 60 per cent returns and told us to borrow from friends,” Mick said.

The scam worked by encouraging members to invest in a stock, including a Malaysian restaurant chain Chicken Claypot House and Dogness, a pet food company.

The stocks were listed on Nasdaq, an American stock exchange, with victims encouraged to send screenshots to the fake “Tom” about how much they had invested.

Victims claim that this information was then used by the scammers to short the stock - profit on its falling share price.

One victim, who asked not to be named, claimed the scammers made $88 million on the fall of the Chicken Claypot House share, which plunged from $11.47 USD per share to 61 cents USD between December 5 and 12 last year.

The victims are now hoping for Meta and the banks to investigate the scam and stop it from happening to other people.

They fear it is a scam farm, with up to 700 people involved and are worried their losses will be used to fuel organised crime.