In brief
- ASIC has removed more than 14,000 scam and phishing websites in two years, with crypto scams making up about 20%.
- The regulator will now target fraudulent ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
- Investment scams cost Australians nearly $1 billion in 2024, with tactics like “AI washing” emerging as new threats.
Australia’s securities regulator has taken down more than 14,000 scam and phishing websites over the past two years, with crypto schemes accounting for about one-fifth of the total, it said Thursday.
ASIC said it will expand its investment scam website takedown capability to include social media advertisements, in efforts to protect Australian consumers from increasingly sophisticated online fraud schemes. Roughly 3,015 crypto scam websites have been removed, the regulator said.
“ASIC could play a more active role in highlighting the differences between unregulated trading platforms (where investors are much more exposed to scam activities and bad actors) and regulated instruments,” Bridget Nichols, chief commercial officer at Australian crypto asset manager Monochrome, told Decrypt.
The regulator continues removing an average of 130 malicious sites weekly, it said, with the expanded powers aimed at disrupting scammers who use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to direct victims to fraudulent investment sites, according to the statement.
Regulated instruments provide “standard protections for investors,” including disclosures, custody rules, and conflict management, Nichols added.
Investment scams remain the most financially damaging type of fraud affecting Australians, with victims losing $945 million to these schemes in 2024 alone.
“Expanding our investment scam takedown capability to social media ads will help safeguard Australian consumers,” ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said in a statement.
ASIC identified five prominent trends in online investment fraud over the past six months with
“AI washing” is emerging as a key tactic where scammers falsely claim their trading bots use artificial intelligence to generate guaranteed returns, exploiting public interest in the technology.
Scammers are deploying slick website templates and third-party tools like live trading charts, alongside fake news with AI-generated celebrity endorsements and “cloaking” tactics to evade detection.
“ASIC’s traditional toolkit—investigations, court actions, administrative actions—are important, but they can’t combat the scourge of online scams on their own,” Court said.
The crypto enforcement component comes as the assets face increased regulatory scrutiny in the country.
Earlier this month, ASIC charged four Victorian men, including a former barrister, with money laundering offenses linked to moving proceeds from large-scale investment scams to crypto exchanges.
Australia’s financial intelligence agency last month declared crypto a top threat in financial crime crackdown, calling it the “most ambitious overhaul of Australia’s anti-money laundering laws in a generation.”
Security vulnerabilities plague the wider crypto ecosystem, with Mitchell Amador, CEO of Immunefi, telling Decrypt, “This year, if we just look at the first half, we’re on track to lose about 3.6–4% of the entire sector’s assets to hacks, which is insane.”
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