Australia’s ASIC takes down over 600 crypto scam websites in yearlong operation

Australia’s securities regulator says more than 8 percent of scam sites it will close in 2023 focus solely on crypto investments.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has released a report celebrating the first anniversary of its investment scam prevention initiative, announcing the removal of thousands of phishing and investment scam websites.

In a press release on August 19, ASIC revealed that it has coordinated the closure of more than 7,300 phishing websites since July 2023, of which 5,530 were fake investment platforms, 1,065 were phishing scam links, and 615 were crypto investment scams.

ASIC website outage process month by month from 2023 | Source: ASIC

The press release said investment scams continue to be the most common type of fraud affecting Australians, with losses totalling $1.3 billion in 2023 alone. ASIC stressed that consumers should be particularly wary of social media links promoting online trading and crypto investments.

“An average of 20 investment scam websites are taken down every day. Rapidly removing malicious websites is an important step to stopping criminal scammers from causing further harm to Australians.”

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court

ASIC attributed the widespread phishing activity to the use of fake news articles and deepfake videos of public figures promoting fake online investment platforms, particularly on social media. According to the press release, these deceptive platforms represent the largest proportion of websites targeted by ASIC.

Earlier in August, the Australian Federal Police, in collaboration with Chainalysis, announced that it had identified over 2,000 compromised crypto wallets belonging to Australians.

While it’s unclear whether any of the stolen assets have been recovered, exchanges like BTC Markets, Binance, and Crypto.com have helped prevent further losses by collaborating with authorities to identify and support Australian victims. Police noted that malicious actors have stolen more than $4 billion in crypto since May 2021 through phishing attacks alone.