ASIC Shuts Down 615 Crypto Scam Websites in Major Crackdown, Reports $1.3 Billion in Investment Scam Losses for 2023

The Block has announced an exciting event called Emergence, which will take place in Prague on December 5-6, 2024.

In recent news, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, has taken significant action against cryptocurrency scams. They reported shutting down over 600 scam websites as part of a year-long effort to combat investment fraud.

Since July 2023, ASIC has removed a total of 7,300 scam websites. Out of these, 615 were specifically related to cryptocurrency. This is a big step in protecting consumers.

According to ASIC, investment scams led to losses of about $1.3 billion in 2023. Sarah Court, the Deputy Chair of ASIC, stated, “Australians are still losing billions of dollars each year to scams.” She emphasized that scammers target hardworking Australians and use sophisticated methods to steal money and information.

ASIC also took down a major crypto scam website called Dexa Trade Markets. This site falsely claimed to be internationally regulated and boasted billions in trading volume and millions of investors. Remarkably, the takedown happened just one hour after ASIC referred the website for removal.

Crypto investment scams continue to be a serious issue for regulators. Recently, the ACCC alleged that more than half of crypto-related ads on Facebook were either scams or violated Meta’s policies, as reported by The Guardian.

Additionally, a woman from Florida has filed a lawsuit against Google. She claims she lost $5 million due to a scam crypto app downloaded from the Google Play Store. She alleges it took Google three months to remove the fraudulent app.