The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has widened its crypto scam crackdown to include the monitoring and removal of fraudulent social media ads.
With the expanded crypto scam crackdown, ASIC will now implement proactive monitoring and takedowns of social media ads linked to fraudulent schemes and phishing sites.
The regulator will pass suspicious sites and ads to specialist cybercrime teams for swift investigation and removal.
By targeting social media ads, the expansion aims to better protect Australian consumers from increasingly sophisticated online fraud.
The move follows ASIC’s takedown operation, which since July 2023 has shut down around 14,000 scam websites, including more than 3,000 linked to cryptocurrency. In 2024, the regulator averaged about 140 takedowns a week, easing to around 130 per week so far this year.