{"id":48254,"date":"2021-08-25T12:06:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T09:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=48254"},"modified":"2025-09-02T01:20:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T22:20:43","slug":"australians-lose-more-than-25-7-million-to-bitcoin-scammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/australians-lose-more-than-25-7-million-to-bitcoin-scammers\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians lose more than $25.7 million to Bitcoin scammers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Australia, cryptocurrency-related financial fraud has surged. In the first half of 2021 alone, locals handed over $25.7 million to criminals, up 44% from the entire 2020 figure ($17.8 million), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/media-release\/australians-lose-over-70-million-to-bogus-investment-opportunities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u0441\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0430\u0435\u0442<\/a> the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).<\/p>\n<p>Of the 4,763 complaints received by the agency, 2,240 related to fictitious investments in Bitcoin and other digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>According to ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard, scammers lure investors by promising high returns and by enlisting celebrities in promotional campaigns for trading platforms.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cInvestors are initially allowed to withdraw some profits using the assets of other victims. However, ultimately people lose access to their funds,\u201d added Rickard.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Overall, losses from investment scams in Australia in the first half reached AU$70 million (about US$50.5 million).<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/australian-regulator-warns-investors-against-dealing-with-unlicensed-firms\">urged investors to invest with caution<\/a> in crypto-related financial products and not to deal with unregistered companies.<\/p>\n<p>The regulator noted that it had received reports of users of such platforms who suffered \u201csignificant losses\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In July, the local blockchain association urged the authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/in-australia-calls-for-a-safe-harbour-for-cryptocurrencies\">to take a coordinated approach to creating a regulatory framework<\/a> for the cryptocurrency industry.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForkLog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cryptocurrency-related financial fraud has surged in Australia. In the first half of 2021 alone, locals handed over $25.7 million to criminals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[108,1154,1269],"class_list":["post-48254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-australia","tag-crimes","tag-cryptocurrencies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"12","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48256,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48254\/revisions\/48256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}