Marking the first anniversary for its strategic focus on scam disruption, ASIC has announced the takedown of more than 7300 phishing and investment scam websites that aim to trick consumers into giving up personal information.
Since July 2023, ASIC has managed to remove over 5530 fake investment platform scams, 1065 phishing scam hyperlinks and 615 cryptocurrency investment scams.
The report comes as Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones declared a “war on scams” ahead of the next federal election.
In 2023, investment scams resulted in $1.3 billion in losses and are the leading scam affecting Australians. Investment trading platform scams are the largest component of ASIC’s website takedowns.
Back in March, ASIC issued a warning about fake news articles and deepfake videos that help promote online investment trading platform scams. Scammers often use social media platforms to lure consumers to investment scam websites. Removing the websites breaks the link between scammers and targeted consumers.
Combating investment scams is a key priority for ASIC with the investment scam and phishing website takedown disruption capability being part of the government’s Fighting Scams initiative.
ASIC works closely with the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) to combat scams and co-leads the investment scam fusion cell to implement disruption action.
ASIC refers suspicious websites to a third-party company specialising in cybercrime detection and disruption.
Once evidence of malicious activity is confirmed, the takedown process begins, including identifying relevant parties who can help to take the attack offline.
The types of websites targeted include fake or imposter entities offering investment scams to Australians through fake investment trading platforms and cryptocurrency investment scams.