Australians Lose More Than 242.5M AUD to Crypto and Ponzi Schemes

According to Scamwatch’s newly released report, Australians have been on the receiving side of millions of dollars worth of scams by several Ponzi and crypto schemes. About 242.5 million Australian dollars were lost to con artists and scammers in the name of lucrative cryptocurrency investment schemes.

Since the beginning of the year, such crypto frauds in Australia have been high, leading to an already thirty-six percent increase in the data numbers since 2021, when over 17.82 million AUD was lost to investment scams throughout the year.

The menace has propelled consumer advocates to include banks in the redemption plan, and for them to take on more responsibility for the reimbursement of the lost money. According to a report published on September 8th by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the endorsement community is requesting better reforms that enable banks to individually check the recipient’s name and whether the account number fits the name when money is exchanged online.

In a statement from one of the State’s top-most financial crime police officers, it was noted that the newly encountered line of crypto scammers is utilizing highly refined and intelligent techniques to entice their victims. Most of these con artists reach out to their victims as imposters of some celebrity or police officer, before duping them of their money. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has gone out at a length to call cryptocurrency one of the most notorious “emerging threats” to society, with one report of financial crime every 8 minutes.

While the crowd wants to switch the liability from individual consumers to banks when encountering a scam, banks have another solution in mind. Most banks want customers to adopt the optional PayID technology that enables users to check the name associated with BSB and account number. The efficiency of this optional system, is, however, not very appreciable.

Michael Newman, who is Queensland’s Police Service Financial Crime and Cyber Crime Group Acting Superintendent, said that these scammers are known to pose as imposters and make very believable cases in front of their victims.

Yesterday, on September 11, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commissioner Sean Hughes allegedly requested investors to acknowledge the fact that crypto investing in itself is an extremely risky task.

Moreover, September also witnessed the newly-formed Australian labor party declare its verdict on crypto regulation. On the other hand, Binance Australia also announced its plans to strengthen the training procedures for new customers.