Australian Crypto Traders Hit With Barrage of Bitcoin Scam Emails

Australian cryptocurrency and traders are receiving higher amounts of Bitcoin and crypto-related scam emails than ever before — despite the best efforts of the Australian Federal Police and a new international anti-scam initiative.

The latest flood of Bitcoin scam emails targeting Australian cryptocurrency holders and investors take a “traditional”  approach to defrauding targets out of their crypto holdings, promising foolproof investment schemes, fraudulent payment claim phishing emails, and nonexistent bonus programs aimed at capturing financial details from unsuspecting recipients. 

Bitcoin Email Scammers Use Leaked User Data

Phishing and payment claims scams are nothing new in the world of cryptocurrency — Australian predictive email security platform MailGuard published a warning in December 2019 warning Aussies of a cryptocurrency focused extortion scam fueled by multiple large scale data breaches. 

Cryptocurrency scammers use data leaked in hacks that, in many cases, provides fraudsters with names, email addresses, and other personal information. A major cryptocurrency exchange leak in November 2019 saw the BitMEX exchange, for example, saw a vast amount of user email addresses leaked through negligent misuse of mass-email practices in an event described by crypto-focused lawyer Jake Chervinsky as “outrageously incompetent”

A more recent data leak saw a large portion of the users of cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex notify customers that their email addresses and passwords had been leaked, resulting in widespread distribution of scam emails taking advantage of the event.    

Aussies Targeted by Bitcoin Sextortion Scam

The new wave of crypto scam emails targeting Australian traders reflects a recent rise in scammers focusing on Australian traders. Earlier this year, the Australian Cyber Security Center published a notification warning Australians of a new “sextortion” campaign in which scammers threaten to release personal or sensitive information unless paid in Bitcoin.

The Australian Federal Police has taken a hardline approach to combating international cryptocurrency scammers, recently distributing AFP officers around the world in order to target criminals in Eastern Europe, Nigeria, and Brazil. 

While the scam emails presented in this email article are all marked as spam by email filters, cryptocurrency holders are reminded to maintain a vigilant stance toward email-based cryptocurrency spam.