Five people have been charged over a cold calling scam that allegedly milked $30 million out of about 2000 victims across Australia.
Queensland police raided a series of Gold Coast businesses on Wednesday, along with a home and a business in Brisbane, arresting four men in their 30s and 40s and a 41-year-old woman.
Police allege they were either "principal players" in the scam or involved in laundering victims' money between 2012-2015.
Detective Sergeant Richard Millard said the cold call scam was sold as a "simple, fully automated" computer program that claimed to tell you what shares to buy and sell.
"(The cold call scam claimed) if you followed it (the computer program), you could expect returns between 16 to 18 per cent per month," he said.
"If you didn't make $30,000 in the year, then you would get your money back...but by that stage they had phoenixed and the companies had moved on and the phone numbers were shut down."
Detective Sergeant Richard Millard said the syndicate allegedly used a number of bogus websites that were "sophisticated" and were propped up by fake online magazines.
"They were very well supported by websites that we will allege were created by the organisation, including websites that were developed in the form of an online magazine in which there were awards given to these particular companies," he said.
It is understood on average between $15,000-$20,000 was taken per scam.
Sergeant Millard said some people within the bogus companies did not know they were operating a scam, that largely stung the elderly or those who had access to their retirement savings.
"Throughout this investigation we have come across situations where some of the people involved at the lower levels, really weren't in the know as to what was happening," he said.
"The ones we have been dealing with have had anything up to 20 people on the phones plus support staff."
Financial and Cyber Crimes Group Acting Detective Superintendent Peter Brewer said it had been "a complex and protracted joint-agency investigation".
"We believe more than $30 million over a three-year period was extracted from victims across Australia," he said.
Bogus websites allegedly supported the syndicate, operating under names including ESL, Eurosoft, OWS, OW Sydney, One Wealth, GTA, GlobalTech, GTA Australia, GT Australia, GT Alliance, TRP, TRP Solutions, Thorne Roberts Price and Thomson Rowe Partners.
Victims were encouraged to contact police, Acting Superintendent Brewer said.
"These types of scams are often very professional and convincing," he said.
"People need to be aware that cold calling in relation to financial products of any description is illegal.
"If you find yourself being cold called or being pressured to financially commit this should ring alarm bells and we highly recommend hanging up and having no further contact with those involved."
Officers from the Australian Taxation Office, the Office of Fair Trading and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission assisted the Queensland Police Service in the raids.
