A Queensland man claims he received two seizure and disposal notices from the Australian Border Force in July for tobacco shipments he had no knowledge of.

“I thought it was a joke at first, I really did. It says I’ve consigned for 16,000 sticks of cigarettes. What does that even mean?” the Brisbane man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. 

He had no knowledge of the shipments and claimed it was a fraudulent use of his name and details to act as a consignee for prohibited goods.

The man said he was informed the two shipments contained 10,000 and 16,000 tobacco products respectively. ABF seized them at a container examination facility in NSW.

The two letters, one of with his name spelt wrong, were sent to the Brisbane man’s workplace.

“I thought, what the hell’s going on? Am I going to go to court?” he said.

Concerned about the implications of having his name wrongly associated with illegal shipments, the Brisbane man said he tried to contact border force to dispute the notices but could not reach anyone who could help him.

“I actually spoke to my lawyer and he said, just try to call ABF. I said ‘who? There’s no contact number on the actual disposal notice and no way to dispute it’,” he said.

The man said he received no other correspondence from border force after the notices arrived in the mail. He remains confused about what to do next.

“I was hoping someone from Australian Border Force would call me or someone would come and see me and I could discuss the situation with them. I’m happy to present myself in person anywhere but there’s nowhere to go,” he said.

“I lodged a complaint with ABF, but I couldn’t really find an avenue there for fraudulent activity. I was going to see the police about it but I don’t know what they would do about it.”

The man approached his local federal MP, Elizabeth Watson-Brown, and asked for the ABF to be contacted on his behalf and for the situation to be raised with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King.

“I want to find out what the hell’s going on. I’ve got no fines or anything, but it’s happened twice now, so I don’t know who to reach out to,” he said.

“I haven’t received another notice since, so I’m kind of hoping they’ve just left me alone. But still, I know my name would have been flagged.

“I’d like to get my name cleared and to find the people responsible if that’s even possible.”

With the help of Watson-Brown, the man said he wrote to the Burke and King to explain his situation. He sought help to have his name removed from the issue, and support for himself and other victims of shipping identity fraud.

Burke’s office was contacted for comment. A response came instead from the Australian Border Force, with no comment about the specific case.

However, an ABF spokesperson said the force was aware of attempted ABN fraud within the supply chain, also known as “piggybacking”.

Piggybacking was when criminal entities fraudulently used other identities for consignment without their knowledge to distance themselves from illicit shipments, the spokesperson said.

“Piggybacking remains a persistent challenge for enforcement agencies and is not unique to Australia. The threat is a broader international trend where organised crime syndicates exploit weaknesses in global logistics systems,” the spokesperson said.

‘The ABF have long been working to tackle the methodology and are successfully identifying perpetrators along the supply chain, though organised criminals remained adept at concealing the real players behind operations.”

The spokesperson said identifying piggybacking relied on ABF border controls, licensed customs brokers conducting due diligence checks and the veracity of commercial documentation.

“The ABF works with partner agencies both offshore and onshore to detect and disrupt illicit consignments. Through intelligence-sharing, joint investigations and international cooperation, the ABF continues to strengthen the global response to illicit tobacco trafficking,” the spokesperson said.

They said border force also worked to raise awareness of emerging methodologies so licensed operators could remain alert to criminal attempts to exploit legitimate supply chains.

“The ABF has strict requirements on service providers at the border and takes immediate action whenever we identify potential non-compliance,” they said.

The ABF spokesperson urged community members to report suspicious border-related activity through Border Watch.

The Queensland government recently passed the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products (Dismantling Illegal Trade) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 to crack down on illegal tobacco traders.

Since May, more than 57 million illicit cigarettes, 7.7 tonnes of loose tobacco, 475,000 illicit vapes and 405,000 nicotine pouches have been seized.