According to the most recent data from Scamwatch, Australians have lost 242.5 million Australian dollars to investment and cryptocurrency scams so far in 2022.
From January to July of this year, most of the money lost to scams of all kinds came from investment scams. These include romance-baiting scams, Ponzi schemes, and scams involving cryptocurrencies.
The number is already 36% higher than the total amount of money Australians lost to investment scams in 2021, which was 178.2 million AUD.
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from Scamwatch. Because of this threat, consumer advocates are pushing for banks to take on more of the cost of paying for scams. This will “drive more investment in stopping fraud,” they say.
According to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on September 8, advocacy groups are pushing for changes that would require banks to check that the name of the account holder and the name of the person receiving money online match.
“The most important change is for banks to take responsibility for scam losses instead of consumers,” said Consumer Action Law Center CEO Gerard Brody.
“They [banks] ask for the account name, but they don’t actually check. ”
But banks want more people to use the optional PayID technology, which lets people see the name that goes with a BSB and account number.
Brody said it was clear that the optional system that puts all the responsibility for stopping scams on the consumer isn’t working.
Due to a rise in crypto scams, hacks, and the general market downturn, Australian authorities seemed to be paying more attention to the crypto space.
On September 11, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commissioner Sean Hughes reportedly told investors that buying crypto assets is “extremely risky.”
Local media reported that ASIC Commissioner Sean Hughes told a Governance Institute conference, “We want to be very clear and unambiguous in our messages to consumers entering the market.”
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“We think that crypto assets are very unstable, risky, and hard to understand.”
The Australian Federal Police set up a special team in August to keep an eye on crypto-related transactions. They used to say that cryptocurrency was an “emerging threat” because more crimes were being done with it.
During the same month, the new Australian Labor government said what it thought about how cryptocurrencies should be regulated. In August, the crypto exchange Binance Australia said it would make it harder for new users to join in order to protect people who are most likely to be victims of financial crypto crime.