Australia: 20% Increase in Financial fraud During Pandemic

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission recently reported that investment scams have seen a massive surge during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. According to experts from the regulator, scammers are using similar tactics as they used during the crypto winter in order to convince innocent investors about the potential of their non-existent tokens.

Warren DAY, the regulator’s director of assessment and intelligence has warned about the potential hardships that Australian citizens may face during such hard-pressed economic times, especially considering that there are predators out there looking to defraud them of what little they have remaining.

Scam types

The majority of this fraudulent activity is all too well known for both the ASIC and the Australian population as well. But it seems that the lure of cryptocurrencies has not fully been dealt with. The potential of gaining 100% profits within a single week is just too much for people to ignore.

This “potential” is then used by fraudsters against these willing investors and pitch them a coin, promising massive gains within just days. Most of these frauds resemble things such as ICOs and private investments. This resemblance is one of the many reasons why countries across the world, most notably South Africa, have installed very strict regulations regarding the offering of cryptocurrencies to the general public.

In most cases, these regulatory guidelines were approved after hundreds of fraudulent cases, thus making them almost irreversible in the future.

ASIC fears for fund recovery

The main concern for the Australian regulator currently is not the continuation of the fraudulent activities, as they can very easily be found and dealt with. The real issue that the government faces right now is the recovery of stolen funds.

Due to the already complicated blockchain system of most of these fraudsters and the months which have passed after the crime itself, there’s just no way of knowing where these funds went. Sure, they may recover some of the funds after arresting and interrogating the fraudsters, but finding 100% is just impossible.

Image courtesy of The Pie news