Australians lose $122M to cryptocurrency scams in a year, warns police
Australians lost cryptocurrency worth around 180 million Australian dollars ($122 million) to investment scams in just 12 months, the country’s federal police has warned. In an announcement on Wednesday (August 28), the Australian Federal Police (AFP) cautioned “all to be extra aware of the proliferation and sophistication of scams.”
Data collected by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) showed that Australian nationals reported losing A$382 million ($259 million) to investment scams in the 2023-24 financial year. Around 47 per cent of the investment scam losses involved cryptocurrency.
Australians reported losing at least $180 million of cryptocurrency in investment scams in just 12 months, with victims now more likely to be under the age of 50 years. https://t.co/H1PFHtop4q
— AFP (@AusFedPolice) August 27, 2024
The AFP stated that 60 per cent of the cryptocurrency scam reports made to police came from Australians under the age of 50. That said, AFP Assistant Commissioner Richard Chin said the research revealed that it was a “misnomer” that only older people were victims of scams. He added: “Scams Awareness Week is a timely reminder for all members of the community to know the signs of an investment scam and how to avoid becoming a victim.”
The commissioner added that scammers were using tactics such as deepfakes and pig butchering to deceive people into investing money.
What crypto scams are being used?
What is pig butchering?
The pig butchering scam follows a tried and tested method used by scammers: build trust with the victim through lying, manipulation, and social engineering, persuade them to invest, and then disappear with the money.
Frequently originating on dating sites or through ‘wrong number’ texts, scammers tend to befriend the victim and either walk them through downloading an app to use for investing which is actually a fake app controlled by them, or they will get the victim to send money to their crypto wallet so they can do the heavy lifting.
These scammers often manipulate the situation to make it appear as though the victims are earning substantial returns, encouraging them to invest increasingly larger sums of money—essentially “fattening the pig” for a bigger scam.
What are deepfakes?
Deepfakes are lifelike impersonations of real people created by AI. Scammers create ads, images and news articles of celebrities and trusted public figures to promote fake investment schemes, which can appear on social media feeds or be sent by scammers through messaging apps. In August, deepfakes of the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer were created for a series of financial scams that have appeared on social media platforms.
ReadWrite has reached out to the Australian Federal Police for comment.
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