A whistleblower is one who blows the whistle on corruption, crime and other misconduct, usually (but not always) in government and bureaucracy.

While whistleblowers have been vilified by those they blow the whistle against and their allies, whistleblowers are now acknowledged as providing a useful public service.

For a person to be labeled a whistleblower is nowadays usually treated as an accolade.

Knowing this to be the case, a number of unscrupulous operators have prostituted themselves as "whistleblowers" knowing full well that they are effectively frauds.

For example in 2000, Melbourne newspapers repeatedly gave a police informant credit with being a corruption whistleblower. The reality was very different. The man was in fact a key supplier and go-between for the largest Amphetamine manufacturing ring in Australia. Basically he was a criminal.

Police protected his criminal exploits solely so that they could catch another (associated) criminal.

The man (informant) went along with Police because he had no real choice - the only other alternative was jail for his role in the racket.

There has been an increasing number of people calling themselves "whistleblowers" who are not.

Consequently Kotabi Publishing and Raymond Hoser have claimed both common law and legal copyrights (c) and registration (r) over the trademark 'whistleblower' and relevant variations thereof.

This has been largely to protect our own roles and status as Australia's best known corruption whistleblowing publisher and whistleblower - in particular from imposters who simply do not stack up. We are attempting to separate the information from the misinformation.

Consequently anyone who uses the term whistleblower to describe themselves or their activity, or has an agent such as a journalist who does likewise on their behalf is in breach of the law. We can sue and seek damages. Refer to the Copyright, Trademarks, Trade Practices and other Acts for details.

We do not seek to stop genuine whistleblowers the right to claim such a title, but should such people wish to do so, they must in the first instance seek written approval and written authorization from the trademark owners. We will also seek proper substantiation and evidence from potential whistleblowers before authorising them to make such a claim.

Please address all requests in writing to:

In the meantime - if you do seek to blow the whistle on corruption we suggest that you read the final chapter (45) of the book Victoria Police Corruption - 2, which is a guide for whistleblowers. That chapter has been reproduced on the internet as a public service. We suggest that you save the file and print it out as it is lengthy and best read as 'hard-copy'. It too is copyrighted (c), but we allow the printing of single copies of this chapter for private research as a public service. It must not under any circumstances be sold, plagiarized or similar.