More than 100 scam investment websites are taken down in Australia every week, with social media ads now in the sights of the regulator.
Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) Deputy Chair Sarah Court said the organisation’s latest enforcement and regulatory update, released today, revealed more than 14,000 investment scam and phishing websites had been knocked out since ASIC’s takedown capability began two years ago.
Ms Court said the investment scam website takedown capability was now being expanded to include social media ads, which would help stop scammers directing consumers to online investment scam sites.
“Expanding our investment scam takedown capability to social media ads will help safeguard Australian consumers,” she said.
“ASIC is shutting down around 130 of these investment scam websites every week which means we are shutting down pathways to reach Australians.”
Ms Court said while ASIC’s traditional toolkit of investigations, court actions and administrative actions were important, they couldn’t combat online scams on their own.
“The takedown capability is one example of how we are monitoring the latest trends and acting to protect Australians from those who try to steal from them,” she said.
Ms Court said investment scams remained the leading type of scam impacting Australians in terms of losses.
She said according to the National Anti-Scam Centre, Australians lost $945 million to these types of scams in 2024.
“Scammers continue to evolve their tactics and are using the latest technology to dupe Australians, which is why consumers must remain vigilant.
“While overall scam losses have fallen 25.9 percent compared with 2022, when total scam losses peaked at $3.1 billion, there is still more work to do.”
ASIC has released the top five online investment scam trends it identified through its website takedown work in the last six months:
- AI washing: Scammers claim their fake trading bots use AI to generate passive income and unachievable returns.
- Scam website templates: Scammers use slick templates, fake corporate documents and chatbot plugins to launch convincing copy-cat scam websites quickly.
- Taking advantage of third parties: Scammers embed legitimate-looking third-party content like live trading charts and chatbots to make their fake sites seem credible.
- Fake news articles: Scammers create fake news pages with AI-generated celebrity and prominent Australians fakes to collect contact info and pitch their scams.
- Cloaking: Scammers change the content displayed on the website depending on the location of the target audience and device type.
When considering investment opportunities, ASIC advises Australians to:
Stop:
- Exercise caution when relying on testimonials, celebrity endorsements or a professional-looking website.
- Never feel pressured to invest. Take your time to research first.
- Don’t believe ‘AI generated’ returns or claims that your investment is ‘safe’.
- Avoid investments offered to you through Whatsapp, Telegram and other direct messaging programs.
Check:
- Is the company licensed by ASIC to advise on or offer this investment?
- Has ASIC issued an alert on its Moneysmart Investor Alert List.
- How does the investment work – could you explain it to someone else?
- Are news articles claiming to be from a reputable news websites?
Protect:
- Know what to do if something does go wrong, and how you can complain.
More information about how to spot and report investment scams can be found on: Report an investment scam – Moneysmart.gov.au
