based on materials from the site - By Cointelegraph
The Australian market regulator intends to expand its fight against online fraud after 14,000 cases of online fraud were reported since July 2023, over 3,000 of which are believed to be related to cryptocurrency.
Types of online fraud include investment scams, phishing websites, and online advertising. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court stated that ASIC's measures to combat investment fraud will now be expanded to cover advertising on social media.
"The ability to remove is one example of how we track the latest trends and take action to protect Australians from those who try to deceive them." Global losses from hacks, fraud, and exploits in cryptocurrency amounted to $2.47 billion in the first half of 2025, which is nearly 3% more than the $2.4 billion stolen in 2024.
Cryptocurrencies make up a large portion of fraud this year.
ASIC launched a fraud crackdown operation in July 2023, starting to use new removal powers that involve referring suspicious websites to a third-party company specializing in cybercrime detection for investigation and removal.
ASIC's fraud update published last August showed that approximately 8% of the fraudulent activities that were stopped were related to cryptocurrencies, with an average of about 140 removals per week recorded in 2024.
This year, the average number of weekly removals has slightly decreased to 130.
ASIC reported that the most common schemes include scammers mimicking the use of AI-based trading bots to generate profits, fake websites pretending to be real, and fraudulent news articles with celebrity endorsements created using AI.
Last year, ASIC noted that deepfakes and other AI-generated images raise growing concerns as they make it harder for ordinary people to detect fraud.
Investment fraud leads to losses, but the downward trend continues.
Investment fraud remains a major type of fraud affecting Australians: according to the National Fraud Center, more than $73 million in losses were reported this year.
However, it seems that losses have at least decreased since 2023: in 2024, victims had $192 million stolen compared to $291 million in 2023.
The court stated that scammers continually improve their tactics, often using the latest technologies to deceive victims.
"While recent data shows that the coordinated efforts of the National Fraud Center are yielding results in the fight against fraud, much work remains to be done, and we urge Australians to stay vigilant," she added.
Meanwhile, ASIC reiterated that all reviews, celebrity endorsements, promises of income, and investments using artificial intelligence proposed through WhatsApp, Telegram, and other messaging apps should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Crypto ATMs are also under scrutiny.
Australian regulators have also taken control of cryptocurrency ATMs this year, which they suspect are linked to online fraud in some cases.
The Australian financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) led a nationwide campaign against the criminal use of cryptocurrency ATMs earlier this year.
Australia ranks third in the world for the number of crypto ATMs: according to the latest data, there are 1,968, and their number continues to grow.
In June, the Australian Cybercrime Agency (AUSTRAC) introduced new operating rules and transaction limits for cryptocurrency ATM operators to combat fraud. Last December, the agency also identified cryptocurrencies as a priority for 2025.
According to the AFP, the Australian online cybercrime reporting system ReportCyber received 150 reports of fraud involving cryptocurrency ATMs from January 2024 to January 2025. Losses from these frauds exceeded $2 million (A$3.1 million).
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