GULLIBLE investors are being swindled out of millions of dollars through a sophisticated and fast growing form of financial crime, the sale of bogus bank notes, a business group said on Thursday.

In a report, the International Chamber of Commerce's Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) said unofficial estimates for the United States alone put losses in about 100 investment fund fraud cases at more than $350 million (£222 million) since 1987.

"The figures are likely to be far higher. The experience of the Commercial Crime Bureau is that probably less than 10 per cent of fraud worldwide is even reported to law enforcement agencies," the report said.