Australia's securities regulator removed 3,106 cryptocurrency investment scams in the 2026 financial year, almost 30% more than the year before, as criminals leaned harder on generative AI, celebrity impersonations, and networks of fabricated websites. ASIC's 17 August release put total online scam takedowns at more than 19,400, up 182% from FY25. Inside that pile were 7,051 fake investment platforms, up 151%, and 5,476 phishing links, up 279%.
The method has changed. Operators now use AI deepfakes, fake news reports, and cloned public figures to make a fraudulent dashboard look like a licensed desk. Scams impersonating Australian public figures accounted for more than A$7.4 million in reported losses. The pattern matches the cloned livestream pitches police in the UK, Australia, and the U.S. have been warning about as Bitcoin's bounce draws new retail viewers. A green profit number on a cloned screen is not an asset the operator will wire.
What ASIC wants investors to do first
Do not send money, cryptocurrency, or personal information until the provider's identity and licence have been checked against ASIC's official registers, not against a logo on a website or a video that looks like a news clip. Search the Professional Register. Match the name, the AFSL number, and the contact details. If any of those fail, stop. Temporary licensing relief for certain digital-asset businesses has been extended to 30 September, which scammers will try to hide behind. Relief is not a licence, and a cloned "AFSL" on a landing page is not a search of the register.
If the coins have already left
Speed and a clean evidence trail matter more than public posts. Save transaction hashes, the original messages, screenshots of the platform, and a contemporaneous report to police. Legitimate recovery work starts with a wallet map and court process. It does not start with an invoice, a gift card, AnyDesk, or a request for a seed phrase. Firms such as Sarah Legal pair on-chain tracing with pleadings, the same pairing that advanced recent Australian freeze files. For the process, see how crypto recovery works and our guide to spotting a legitimate recovery firm.