Australia's Financial Regulator Halts Over 600 Crypto Scams in Last Year

Many of these scams are spread via social media, often featuring fake celebrity endorsements.

The regulator reported that since July 2023, it has helped remove over 5,500 fraudulent investment sites, more than 1,000 phishing links, and 615 crypto scam websites.

Last year, scams—primarily through fake investment trading platforms—resulted in an estimated $1.3 billion in losses. These scams often used fabricated news and deepfake videos featuring local public figures, with the majority of these sites being targeted by ASIC.

"Australians are still losing billions of dollars each year to scams," said ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court. "Scammers are criminals who target the finances of hard-working Australians. They don’t discriminate and use sophisticated techniques to steal information and money."

Court noted that, on average, 20 scam investment websites are removed daily, emphasizing the need for swift action to protect Australians from further harm. In a separate case, Australian law enforcement recently uncovered over 2,000 hacked crypto wallets.

The announcement follows a disclosure by Australia’s competition watchdog last week, revealing that over half of the crypto ads on Meta’s platform deceive users or violate Meta’s advertising policies. These misleading ads often misuse the images of well-known Australians like Dick Smith and James Packer, as well as Hollywood stars such as Chris Hemsworth, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Mike Baird.

In 2024, Australia saw over 3,400 reports of investment scams, resulting in losses of more than $78 million. The competition watchdog has identified around 600 ads that could potentially violate Meta’s policies, with a primary focus on 234 of these ads. The commission suspects that more misleading crypto advertisements may come to light as legal investigations continue.