Scam Awareness Week 2022, held on November 7 to November 11, where ASIC ( Australian Securities and Investment Commission) was empowered to detect cryptocurrency scams.
According to Scam Awareness Week 2022, 2,86,622 Australians reported to Scamwatch for losing $324 million in 2021, and Australians have lost even more than $381 million by the end of August this year.
- Top 10 ways to detect crypto scams
- Scam of $701 million in Australia
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s (ASIC) main aim is to make the financial market, Financial service providers, Credit service providers, and Australian companies fair and efficient and provide safe and secure participation of Investors and customers.
ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said, “Australians lost more than $701 million to investment scams in 2021, up 135% from the previous year and these scams are continuing to increase. The main driver of the increase was cryptocurrency investment scams, where losses increased by 270%. The ACCC has advised that losses to crypto scams have increased further in 2022.”
Scam Awareness Week 2022 was organized by ACCC ( Australian Competition & Consumer Commission), which aims to decrease the scams and impact of scams in the country.
To prevent these scams, ASIC introduced 10 ways to detect the scam, in which ASIC covers all the points. In the 10 ways, ASIC mentioned the scam that redirects users’ payments, Investment scam, and romance scam, which users must be aware of this scams.
Because in 2021, Australians lost $701 million in investment scams, $227 lost in the redirection of the payment, and $142 million in romance scams.
ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said that if the user thinks they are the victim of the scam, she provides instructions not to make more investments and informs quickly to your bank to stop all the transactions of the account.
Sarah Court instructs to block all the contact numbers from the scammer and act quickly.
Sarah Court said, “When Australians fall victim to scams, the cost is often more than purely financial. Scams cause emotional stress and can impact relationships.” Users can contact 13 11 14 and 1300 22 46 36 for emotional and crisis support.
According to Scam Awareness week 2022, the top tips to avoid scams, it has mention 3 points Stop, Think, and protect to use these terms before making any investment.
This data shows the seriousness of the issue in Australia because 138,591 males reported the scam, and 142,092 females reported it, according to the Targeting scam report 2021.