Australian residents have been identified as prime targets for a sophisticated network of cryptocurrency call center scammers, suspected of being run by Israel-based crime bosses.
Evidence uncovered following a large-scale raid on four Serbian call centers and 11 residences by Serbian, German, Bulgarian and Cypriot authorities revealed that Australians were among the top countries targeted.. The news comes from a report published on February 23 by The Australian.
The raids arrested fifteen people and seized $1.46 million in cryptocurrency.
Dramatic police raids in Belgrade, Bulgaria and Cyprus, following investigations in Germany, have uncovered evidence Australia is in the top tier of countries being targeted: https://t.co/zWv7I3N5Kg pic.twitter.com/k98CPDxwz7
—The Australian (@australian) February 23, 2023
Dramatic police raids in Belgrade, Bulgaria and Cyprus, following investigations in Germany, have uncovered evidence that Australia is among the top countries targeted:
According to the report, The scammers at these call centers allegedly used social media ads to lure victims into promising investment opportunities with lucrative benefits.
Private investigation firms told the outlet that Australians were especially targeted by scammers because of their relative wealth and an alleged record of poor investigative efforts by federal and state authorities:
“Australia’s wealth, combined with a long history of unwillingness or inability by state and federal authorities to investigate online investment fraud, has made the country an easy target for international crime syndicates behind the scams.”
Mark Solomons, principal investigator for IFW Global, a private intelligence firm, explained that, since many Australians are “friendly” and “open-minded”, they are more likely to have relationships online, especially “if the right buttons are pushed”.
“Australia and Canada are fighting for first place. These are wealthy countries with little chance of disciplined investigation or detection.”
Solomons said that much of the stolen cryptocurrency is used to finance the lavish lifestyles of scammers:
“There are Israelis who are getting very, very rich by ripping off Australians and sucking retirement savings out of the Australian economy.”
“We are talking about individuals who fly in private jets, who have significant assets, real estate, luxury cars and cash. They travel freely around the world, they buy yachts,” Solomons added.
Although Europol has reported that the multinational operation has stolen USD 3.1 million, he believes that the real figure “may be hundreds of millions of euros”.
Compared with other “well-endowed” nations of resources, Solomons urged the Australian government to increase its enforcement efforts at the state, federal and international levels to make targeting Australian investors less attractive to these scammers.
While some reports say Australians lost up to $2 billion to investment scams in 2021, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported that Australians lost $323.7 million, rising a whopping 75.6% to $568.6 million in 2022according to the consumer watchdog Scamwatch database.
$221 million of those scam losses occurred through the use of crypto payments, according to the ACCC.
Victims also lost another $53.4 million in the first month of 2023.
To combat this problem, the Australian Securities Investment Commission published a list of the “Top 10 Ways to Spot a Crypto Scam” in November. to raise awareness about the issue.
In July 2022, the ACCC began testing a cybersecurity service that automatically removes fraudulent websites. The test was initially successful, as several cryptocurrency scam sites went down relatively quickly.
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