Australia’s corporate and financial regulator has escalated its crackdown on AI-powered investment fraud, reporting the removal of 3,106 fake cryptocurrency platforms and more than 19,400 total online scams in the 2025-26 financial year. The figures were disclosed on 17 August and published on 20 August 2026.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, crypto-related takedowns rose nearly 30% from the prior year, while total scam removals surged 182%. Fake investment platform removals reached 7,051, a 151% increase, and phishing link removals climbed 279% to 5,476.
ASIC said criminal syndicates are using generative AI to build interconnected webs of deception, combining deepfake video and audio impersonations with fabricated news articles, spoofed media sites and synthetic reviews to steer victims toward fraudulent trading platforms. The most impersonated public figures in FY26 included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, finance commentators Tom Piotrowski and Alan Kohler, and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Losses linked to celebrity impersonation scams reached A$7.4 million, or approximately US$5.2 million, based on Scamwatch reports.
ASIC Chair Sarah Court warned that AI is making investment scams more convincing and harder to detect. “A simple online search is not enough to verify whether an opportunity is legitimate. The presence of polished content, familiar branding, or convincing testimonials does not mean an investment is genuine,” Court said.
The regulator noted that scammers routinely steal legitimate Australian Financial Services Licence numbers and impersonate registered firms, so even licence checks are not sufficient on their own. ASIC and Scamwatch urged investors to verify entities through the regulator’s Professional Registers before transferring funds.
Broader data from the ACCC and the National Anti-Scam Centre put total Australian scam losses at A$2.18 billion for calendar 2025, with investment scams accounting for A$837.7 million. The celebrity-impersonation total is only a narrow slice because it captures only cases where victims identified a specific impersonated figure; the true cost of AI-facilitated crypto fraud is likely much larger. Over the past three years, ASIC has removed more than 33,400 malicious links, fake platforms, and social media advertisements tied to investment fraud.
