Between January and July 2022, Australians lost AUD 242.5 million ($167 million) due to fraudulent schemes regarding investments and cryptocurrencies. This is evidenced by data from the Scamwatch service administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

This is 36% higher than the total loss of AUD 178.2 million ($122.7 million) for the full year 2021.

The most vulnerable category, victims of the attackers, were people over 55 and under 64.

ACCC representatives urged banks to invest in fraud prevention programs.

Advocacy groups are pushing for reforms that would require banks to verify that the recipient’s name and account number match when making online transactions, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“The fundamental reform is to shift that responsibility from individual consumers to banks when it comes to fraudulent losses,” said Gerard Brody, executive director of the Consumer Action Legal Center.

In turn, financial institutions actively promote the use of PayID technology. Allows customers to see the name attached to the bank ID BSBand account number.

Earlier, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Commissioner Sean Hughes said that investing in digital assets is a form of “extreme risk” because they are “highly volatile and complex in nature.”

Recall that in May Australia’s largest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, abandoned the second pilot program for the provision of cryptocurrency trading services for an indefinite period, closing access to the first due to regulatory uncertainty.

In June, the mayor of Gold Coast, Australia, Tom Tate, did not rule out that in the future residents may be able to pay taxes on digital assets.

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