Australians are Plagued by Cryptocurrency Scams
The National consumer Watchdog in Australia has released a critical report which clearly states that the cryptocurrency and trading scams are growing at a rapid pace. They are currently facing the 2nd biggest scams in the country.
The independent government and the authority normally enforces the rules for the consumer protection. That is why it always analyses the number of scams and companies which comes from the consumers.
The watchdog stated that the cryptocurrency related scams are prevalent. In addition to that, binary options scams are also prevalent. In the case of cryptocurrencies, the scams are often related to trading. There have been quite a few instances where investors or traders have lost a significant amount of money in the last 12 months.
According to the deputy chair, Delia Rickard, more and more people are becoming aware of cryptocurrency trading. As a result, scammers are latching onto the enthusiasm of these peoples in order to sell their products. Moreover, these people have little to no knowledge about cryptocurrency price movements. As a result, they are losing a fortune. She further added that in most of the cases, investors lose money pretty quickly.
Toward the last year, when the Bitcoin prices, as well as cryptocurrency prices, increased significantly, there was a 126% increase in the Bitcoin-related scams.
There are many fraudulent investment schemes which promise a certain return to the investors. The get rich quick schemes often attract a lot of investors and they end up losing a significant amount of money.
According to Watchdog, the total losses are around AU$ 340 million. Out of these, AU$ 2.1 million are scammed with the help of ICO’s. Also, the authority further stated that these were just the reported cases. The amount is much larger when you account for the unreported cases as well.
It seems like scammers are using the cryptocurrency related scams in order to relive the investors. It is up to the investors to ensure that they are able to keep themselves safe and they are not falling for such scams. The get rich quick schemes are too good to be true. Most of the investors will believe that astronomical returns can once again be attained in the world of cryptocurrency. The large amounts which are being scammed are a testament to the fact that investors are not doing their due diligence before investing in such schemes.