Scammers are using the popularity of cryptocurrency by setting up fake apps to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from would-be Australian crypto investors.
Key points:
- The Australian Tax Office estimates up to 600,000 Australians have invested in “crypto-assets”
- Experts say scammers are using the popularity of crypto, and work too fast for tech companies to act
- The latest scam involves fake apps offered on stores like Google Play
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest available data shows almost 30 reports of the emerging scam between June and November last year, with $374,000 in losses accumulated.
However, the ACCC said actual losses from these types of scams were likely to be higher, because research showed only about 13 per cent of scam victims reported their experience.
Last June, Canberra engineer Paul invested about $5,000 in a new cryptocurrency project called Cake Monster.
“I’m not a novice with computers or online safety — I do all my banking online and I’m paranoid about security — but I didn’t fully understand crypto at the time,” he said.
Paul then began looking for a cryptocurrency wallet — a common phone application that allowed him to send and receive the new digital currency on his phone.
Because cryptocurrency is digital, it isn’t stored physically. Instead, all transactions are recorded and stored on the Blockchain — a…
