One of the Australian regulators warned that the number of cases of fraud related to the cryptocurrency trade "significantly" increased over 12 months and is currently the second most widespread type of investment fraud in the country.
An independent government body that enforces consumer protection laws and tracks fraudulent trends in Australia - the Australian Commission on Competition and Consumption (ACCC) - owns the Scamwatch website, which focuses on fraud alerts.
In a warning published on Monday, the regulator has attracted public attention, urging caution, as fraud related to the cryptocurrency trade and binary options are becoming more "prevalent". The warning says that their number has significantly increased over the past year and they have become the "second most common type of investment fraud", - notes ACCC.
In a statement, ACCC Vice-President Delia Rickard added:
“The rise in popularity in cryptocurrency trading has not been missed by scammers who are latching onto this new trend to con people. These are similar to any other investment scam: the scammer will claim to have inside knowledge about price movements they will use to make you a fortune. If you invest, your money will quickly disappear.”
As reported in November 2017, ACCC revealed an increase in the level of fraud related to Bitcoin by 126%. Encouraging investors to fear fraudulent schemes, Ricard warned Australians to avoid projects that promise "risk-free investment," "low risk," "high yield," or "rapid enrichment".
At the same time, the regulator confirmed that fraudulent projects offering to invest in traditional investment markets, such as stocks, commodities or real estate, continue to represent the "vast majority of investment fraud" in Australia.
Earlier, the ACCC said that in 2017, it received a total of 1,289 complaints related to fraud with cryptocurrency from Australian citizens. The total loss of Australians was about 1.2 million Australian dollars.
In its annual fraud report published in May, the ACCC noted that it received a total of 200,000 fraud allegations, with a total loss of 340 million Australian dollars. Cryptocurrency fraud, including ICO, accounted for only a small fraction of these total losses - Australians lost about $ 2 million due to cryptocurrency fraud. However, ACCC notes that this is most likely "just the tip of the iceberg".