A scam activity report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) uncovered that 3,910 crypto scam incident reports were filed during 2022 with $148.3 million lost in total – representing a 162.4% increase from 2021.

Crypto scams have more than doubled in Australia in 2022 when compared to the figures of the previous years, with the average Australian victim losing AU$56,600 ($37,900). The $148.3 million figure constitutes over 7% of the total AU$3.1 billion ($2.08 billion) funds scammed in Australia in 2022.

The ACCC report also revealed that bank transfers were the largest scam payment method with over 13,000 reports in total, worth $141 million, which is still $7.3 million less than scams via cryptocurrency. Most victims were contacted through social media and networking applications, while bank transfer payment scams were typically orchestrated via phone and email.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe attributed the increase in scams to several reasons, with one being the new technologies which make it easier for scammers to “lure and deceive victims” with growingly “sophisticated” tactics:

“We have seen alarming new tactics emerge which make scams incredibly difficult to detect. This includes everything from impersonating official phone numbers, email addresses and websites of legitimate organizations to scam texts that appear in the same conversation thread as genuine messages.”

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/australian-crypto-scams-increased-by-over-162-with-nearly-150m-lost

https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Targeting%20scams%202022.pdf

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-calls-for-united-front-as-scammers-steal-over-3bn-from-australians

https://twitter.com/acccgovau/status/1647744289001046016