TechFlow news — On August 19, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) revealed that it had coordinated the removal of over 600 cryptocurrency scams in the past year.
ASIC stated it has helped shut down 5,530 fraudulent investment platform scams, 1,065 phishing scam hyperlinks, and 615 cryptocurrency investment scams. These scams are estimated to have caused A$1.3 billion in losses last year, primarily spreading through fake news articles and deepfake videos featuring local public figures.
ASIC removes an average of 20 websites per day. In one case, after receiving a report from an Australian consumer who had been defrauded by an online cryptocurrency scam falsely claiming international regulation and billions in trading volume, ASIC took the website offline within one hour of the report. Despite a surge in crypto-related scams around the Bitcoin halving event in April, data provided by regulators indicate a month-on-month decline in such scams.
