Following some global breachers and scams where celebrities are the main bait to gullible consumers, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, is sending a warning to Australian about these frauds.
The watchdog’s public warning was triggered by numerous reports of fraudulent crypto sites which liked the other scams happening in the different parts of the globe, are endorsed by prominent businesses, new locations, et. al.
If USA (aka Twitter) had Elon Musk or Steve Wozniak as the victim to these image-marring cyber ruses, in Australia, it involves endorsement of national celebrities like Waleed Aly, Mike Baird, Dick Smith, and Virginia Trioli, to name a few.
Are bots scams alive in Australia?
In recent statements, ASIC share various case studies which they have encountered and recorded
Case in point, the Bitcoin Evolution, is considered by them as a fake crypto trading bot. The scam’s website has tagged as harmful to some other countries Philippines and Malta. They come in the Bitcoin Revolution and Bitcoin Trader.
According to the company, the operation is ads appear on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Once a victim tries to click on the article or advertisement, they are redirected to a place called a ‘mirror site’ – a counterfeit version of a legitimate news site such as ABC News.”
Then the fraudsters syndicate all these online search terms to engender fake news articles and ads on social media. Thus, reflecting the fabricated endorsements of celebrities or media outlets like the ones mentioned above.
The watchdog also added that these online search engines and news sites often republish those articles or ads, digging more frenzy and excitement until the victim is lured to the transactions.
A more people buy into that cryptocurrency, it gets pumped, and the value also escalates. The scammers once gotten a high price sells this share, which then is theirs already. It is now called overvalued cryptocurrency.
The value then goes down when this happens.
On the other hand, the Australians recently sued and released 1,810 reports of cryptocurrency-related scams in 2019, reaching more than $21.6 million AU ($14.9 million).
An arm of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released a survey where younger Australians aged 25-34 are affected by these scams.
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