Australian Authorities Combat Sophisticated Cryptocurrency Scams

According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency scammers have been impersonating Australian police and exploiting government infrastructure to deceive victims into surrendering their digital assets, as reported by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on Thursday. The scammers utilize the local cybercrime reporting tool, ReportCyber, to submit reports about their targets. Subsequently, they contact the victims, posing as police officers, and invite them to verify the report on government websites, thereby lending credibility to their fraudulent activities. In one instance, the scammers informed the victim that they would be contacted by a representative from a cryptocurrency company, who would provide report information to establish legitimacy. This second caller then attempted to persuade the target to transfer funds from their platform wallet to a wallet of their choice. Fortunately, the target became suspicious and terminated the call, as noted by the AFP. AFP Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson highlighted that the scammers falsely claimed an individual had been arrested and the victim identified in an investigation related to a cryptocurrency breach. She emphasized that the scammers' verification steps often mimic legitimate law enforcement procedures, making the scheme highly convincing to some victims. Andersson pointed out that this type of scam is part of a broader trend of increasingly sophisticated scams. She urged Australians to adopt necessary online safety measures and warned that if contacted about a ReportCyber report they did not lodge or authorize, they should terminate the call and notify ReportCyber. She also reminded the public that legitimate law enforcement officials will never request access to cryptocurrency accounts, wallets, bank accounts, cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases, or any personal information related to financial accounts. Australian authorities have been actively addressing crypto crime. In late October, the AFP announced the successful cracking of a coded cryptocurrency wallet backup containing 9 million Australian dollars ($5.9 million), suspected to be proceeds of a crime. Additionally, in late August, Australia's markets regulator expanded its campaign against online scams, having dismantled 14,000 scams since July 2023, with over 3,000 involving cryptocurrency. In July, authorities in Tasmania discovered that the top 15 users of crypto ATMs in the state were all victims of scams, with combined losses amounting to 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.6 million).