AUSTRAC and ASIC Investigating Scammers Deceiving Aussie Crypto Investors

A new investigation by the Australian Financial Review has shown that millions of dollars in cryptos are being stolen by British scammers posing as crypto exchanges in Australia.

These scammers not only are disguising themselves as exchanges but also faking identities of financial corporations and Australian investment management companies, offering high-yield bonds.

Some of the alleged stolen identities are:

• Citibank
• Nomura
• IFM Investors
• Binance
• Coinbase

According to the investigation, The AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) and the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) will work together to track down these scammers.

Scammers Posing as Binance Australia and Coinbase

Not only scammers have been stealing and posing as major financial institutions, but also taking the same web infrastructure of several crypto exchanges.

These scammers have also been exploiting the potential reach of several search engines, appearing in the main pages of Google as top crypto exchanges.

Back in February, Jeff Yew, CEO of Binance Australia, warned people on Twitter over misleading emails all over the country.

Following his post, another user reply by uploading an image of SMSs with “Withdrawal codes” sent to him by “Coinbase”.

Australians should be careful when receiving emails and SMSs claiming to be crypto exchanges or investment funds. You can check out Crypto News Australia’s guide on how to stay safe in crypto and avoid wallet frauds.