The Australian Federal Police (AFP) stated on Thursday that cryptocurrency scammers are impersonating Australian police and abusing government infrastructure to pressure victims into handing over digital assets.

The federal police reported that the scammers use the local cybercrime reporting tool ReportCyber to submit reports about their targets. They then contact the victims posing as police officers and invite them to view the relevant reports on government websites, thereby adding credibility to the scam.

In one case, the scammers warned the victim that they would receive a call from a representative of a cryptocurrency company, who would also provide report information to verify their identity. A second caller then attempted to persuade the target to transfer funds from their platform wallet to a wallet address specified by them.

"Fortunately, the victim became suspicious and hung up the phone," the federal police stated.

Marie Andersson, the federal police's director of investigations, noted that the scammers falsely claimed that someone had been arrested, and the victim was identified in an investigation involving cryptocurrency leaks. She pointed out that the verification steps used by these scammers often closely resemble real law enforcement procedures, leading some victims to be "completely convinced."

Andersson stated that these types of scams are part of a trend of increasingly sophisticated fraudulent tactics. She encouraged "the Australian public to take necessary online security measures" and reminded them, "If someone contacts you regarding a ReportCyber report that you did not submit or authorize someone else to submit on your behalf, please hang up the phone immediately and notify ReportCyber."

Australian authorities have been actively combating cryptocurrency crime. At the end of October this year, the federal police announced that they had decrypted a coded cryptocurrency wallet backup containing AUD 9 million (USD 5.9 million), suspected to be proceeds of crime.

At the end of August this year, it was reported that Australian market regulators were expanding their crackdown on online scams, having investigated 14,000 cases since July 2023, with over 3,000 involving cryptocurrency. In July, Tasmanian authorities found that the top 15 cryptocurrency ATM users in the state were all victims of scams, with total losses reaching AUD 2.5 million (USD 1.6 million).

Related: Tokenized government bonds surpass USD 8.6 billion, banks and exchanges promote their use as collateral

Original: “Australian Federal Police Warn That Scammers Impersonate Police to Steal Crypto Assets”

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