More than 7,300 websites have been taken down in the first year of operation of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s service targeting investment scams, the regulator has revealed.
Since the beginning of the program in July 2023, Asic said it had shut down thousands of scam websites that offer fake investment trading platforms and cryptocurrency investments that are often spread online through social media containing false celebrity endorsements.
The Asic deputy chair, Sarah Court, acknowledged that taking down websites as they pop up could be a game of whack-a-mole, but said the scheme was “making a difference”.
London-based Netcraft can take down sites within hours of an investor or consumer referring it to Asic, she said.
The internet services company has relationships with domain providers across the world and keeps track of similar sites, or ones used by the same scammer.
“We’re taking down on average, about 20 sites a day, and we have caused thousands of these to be taken down,” Court said.
Fake investment trading platforms made up the majority of those (5,530), with phishing – where the scammer masquerades as another service to steal credentials – accounting for 1,065 takedowns and cryptocurrency investment scams accounting for 615 takedowns.
Guardian Australia reported last week an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission analysis of cryptocurrency-related advertisements on Facebook alleged more than half were scams or violated Meta’s policies.
Court said that, as technology has become more sophisticated, it has become increasingly difficult for the average person to detect frauds.
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“A lot of these scams are perpetuated through social media feeds. If you’re sitting there, scrolling through your social media feed, and up pops an advertisement that says ‘click on this link and come and invest money here’, just really pause,” she said.
“[You] should take time to do your due diligence, and you should bring all your healthy scepticism with you before you think about handing over money, or all your personal information.”
In April, the National Anti-Scam Centre reported reported $2.77bn was lost to scams in 2023, a decline of 13.1%, despite reports of more than 600,000 scams, an 18.5% increase.
Court attributed the success to a broad range of measures across industry from banks, to telcos, to the government, as well as increased public awareness.