ASIC snuffs out 10,000 investment scam sites
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is gearing for more decisive action against investment scammers this year, with the agency reporting the successful takedown of more than 10,000 investment scam websites and online advertisers since mid-2023.
On average, ASIC’s anti-scams actions have resulted in the shutdown of 130 scam sites per week since July 2023, when the National Anti-Scam Centre formed the Investment Scams Fusion Cell to support the financial regulator’s scam takedown efforts.
Of these blocked sites, more than 7,200 were identified as fake investment platform scams, 1,500 phishing scam hyperlinks, and 1,200 cryptocurrency investment scams.
Among the more high-profile takedowns of 2024 included Quantum AI, which used ‘deepfaked’ celebrity endorsements to promote its dubious investment methods, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing technologies, to achieve high returns.
The figures were reported in ASIC’s Enforcement and Regulatory Update report, with the financial services regulator noting its removal of more than 6,200 investment scam websites and online advertisements over the 2024 calendar year. Over this time, the Investment Scams Fusion Cell launched an auto-referral system, which immediately refers investment scam websites reported to Scamwatch to ASIC for takedown.
This is slightly down on the figure achieved in the year subsequent to the launch of the fusion cell, where ASIC reported the closure of more than 7,300 investment scam websites.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court warned of scammers “using increasingly sophisticated technology” to create scams that “can look shockingly legitimate”.
“This new data demonstrates that ASIC is making Australia safer by stamping out these scams before they reach Australians,” she said.
Court added: “ASIC will continue to protect Australians from scams by removing them before they reach consumers and holding financial institutions accountable for their scam detection and response practices.”
Australians lost more than $192 million to investment scams last year, according to figures from the ACCC’s ScamWatch service, making up more than 60% of all scam losses reported to the agency. However, with many instances going unreported, the ACCC figure is almost certainly lower than the total dollar value lost by Australians to investment scams.
As well, the financial services regulator noted its successful litigations over the six months to December 2024, securing $46.6 million in civil penalties and 13 criminal convictions.
Further, more than 100 investigations were commenced over this period, up 31% from the prior corresponding period; ASIC also reported an 8% increase in completed surveillances, totalling 376, over these six months.
ASIC chair Joe Longo also noted the “positive impacts” achieved through ASIC’s recent organisational redesign and refreshed executive team, leading to an increase in investigative activity.
“The changes we have made mean ASIC is able to more efficiently process intelligence, leading to earlier commencement of investigations and surveillances,” Longo said.
“We anticipate the increased number of investigations we have commenced will flow through to significant compliance, enforcement and consumer outcomes in the year ahead.”
ASIC revealed it commenced court action against HSBC Australia in December, following allegations the bank failed to adequately protect customers scammed out of millions of dollars.
Credit where credit is due this is decent work from ASIC, upholding one of their primary functions to protect consumers from these blatant scams. I do worry about ASIC trying to prosecute these criminals with their track history. Surely they would be better off referring these cases to the AFP to charge as fraud cases.
This provides little peace of mind, for the 600,000 Australians that got scammed in 2023 alone. ASIC are truly a disgusting organization for knowing about many of these scams,being warned and sitting on their hands whilst Australians lost their lives.
ASIC have blood on their hands, are gutless, and are complete mongrels in my book. They were asleep at the wheel. I contacted ASIC about numerous scams such as the Citibank scam and ASIC could have closed down their Australian operated Bank accounts that afternoon by contacting the Bank but it drifted on for weeks and Australians got ripped off.
Too Late for those who had their lives ripped apart. Meanwhile they’ve got more resources chasing down Advisers for spelling mistakes in a Fee Disclosure document and you’ll bet they’ll rip advisers apart in 2030 for a defective FDS from 2024.