Australia has seen a drastic rise in crypto scamming for the year 2018. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, as well as other government agencies crypto scams have risen significantly the last year totaling 674 separate cases and reported losses are more than AU$6.1 million (US$4.3 million). This is an almost 200% increase to the losses suffered in 2017 (US$1.48 million). The information comes from the tenth annual “Targeting Scams” report of the ACCC.
Reading through the report it seems the gist of the scam is quite straightforward with online scammers appealing to traders through fake trading platforms and promises of major winnings on crypto currencies. Of course, once the consumer wishes to withdraw said winnings a technical problem occurs or the people behind the website simply stop answering. Some reports tell us that clients were asked by scammers to visit nearby bitcoin ATMs to convert fiat into cryptocurrency and transfer it to them. All in all, the ACCC reports that victims of investment scams for 2018 lost a total of $1.83 million in cryptocurrencies.
Reading through the report it seems the gist of the scam is quite straightforward with online scammers appealing to traders through fake trading platforms and promises of major winnings on crypto currencies. Of course, once the consumer wishes to withdraw said winnings a technical problem occurs or the people behind the website simply stop answering. Some reports tell us that clients were asked by scammers to visit nearby bitcoin ATMs to convert fiat into cryptocurrency and transfer it to them. All in all, the ACCC reports that victims of investment scams for 2018 lost a total of $1.83 million in cryptocurrencies.
