‘Malicious’: 20 fake investment scam sites pulled offline every day by Aussie business watchdog

A staggering number of dodgy investment and crypto sites are being pulled offline in a crackdown by Australia’s corporate watchdog.

The Australian corporate watchdog is ripping down 20 investment, phishing and cryptocurrency scam websites every day.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission kicked off an investment scam disruption crackdown last year and published 12-monthly results on Monday.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said Australians were still losing billions of dollars each year to scams.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court says the scammers are malicious. Picture: NewsWire / Josie Hayden

“Every day an average of 20 investment scam websites are taken down,” she said.

Since July 2023, ASIC pulled down more than 5530 fake investment platform scams, 1065 phishing scam hyperlinks and 615 cryptocurrency investment scams. The sites are aiming to steal money or valuable personal data.

Last year Australians lost $1.3bn to investment scams, government data shows.

Earlier this year, ASIC and the National Anti-Scam Centre were forced to issue warnings about fake news articles and deepfake videos of celebrities endorsing and linking to online investment scams, particularly on social media.

Fake video of Australian actor Chris Hemsworth was used as part of an investment scam. Picture: Chris Delmas / AFP

ASIC was proactive in stamping out scams, Ms Court said.

“The scams landscape is rapidly evolving. Innovative technology developments may improve how we live and work; however, they also provide new opportunities for scammers to exploit,” she said.

Examples of scam investments quashed recently include fake videos of Chris Hemsworth and Elon Musk promoting fake online investment program Quantum AI.

ASIC also recently pulled down the website of Dexa Trade Markets, a dodgy crypto investment platform. Its site said Dexa Trade Markets had billions in trading volume and millions of investors.

“The quick removal of malicious websites is an important step to stop criminal scammers from causing further harm to Australians,” Ms Court said.