Australia’s corporate watchdog has warned that fake crypto platforms pushed through WhatsApp-style “trading groups” are targeting young investors with fabricated profits, fake order books and invented withdrawal fees.
Summary
- ASIC says scammers are posing as “star traders” in messaging groups and steering users to fake crypto sites where deposits go straight to criminals.
- The regulator says young Australians are especially exposed, with 23% of people aged 18 to 28 already holding crypto and 41% reporting direct online crypto pitches.
- ASIC is also warning about “recovery” scams that hit victims a second time, while urging users to verify firms through AUSTRAC before sending funds.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has issued a fresh scam alert over fraudulent crypto trading platforms promoted through WhatsApp and other messaging apps, saying the sites display fake trades and fake profits while sending victims’ money directly to scammers. In the warning published May 24, ASIC said the platforms “show profits and trades, but in fact, there is no real trading, and the site contains fake data,” adding that “any money deposited into these platforms goes straight to the scammers.”
The hook is simple and ugly. Fraudsters join or create “share trading” and “stock tips” groups, impersonate successful traders or recognizable market personalities, then funnel users to sham crypto venues that look legitimate until investors try to withdraw, at which point they are told to pay fabricated “fees to release assets or proceeds.” ASIC said those fees also “go straight to the scammers and no assets are released.”
Young Australians appear to be the preferred prey. ASIC said survey data tied to the alert shows 23% of Australians aged 18 to 28 already own crypto, 72% of Gen Z have seen crypto advertising on social media, and 41% say they have been directly pitched crypto investments online, a combination that makes them unusually reachable through the same channels scammers use to manufacture trust and urgency.
Scam mechanics are getting smarter
ASIC’s warning matters because this is not a crude email fraud from 2012; it is a polished social-engineering pipeline built around app-based intimacy, fake dashboards and psychological pressure. The regulator told users to “STOP” before acting on investment advice seen on social media or in messaging groups, to “CHECK” whether a firm is licensed and whether a crypto business appears on AUSTRAC’s virtual asset service provider register, and to “PROTECT” themselves by contacting their bank immediately if money or personal data has already been sent.
That advice follows a broader pattern in Australia’s crypto scam crackdown. In a previous crypto.news report, the Australian Federal Police said Australians lost more than $122 million to crypto investment scams in the prior 12 months, with people under 50 accounting for 60% of cases. The same article noted that ASIC had coordinated the takedown of more than 7,300 phishing and scam sites since July 2023, including 615 crypto investment scams and 5,530 fake investment platforms.
The secondary fraud is even more cynical. ASIC warned that so-called fund recovery services are targeting people who were already scammed once, effectively selling false hope to victims who are desperate to retrieve lost money. European regulators have described the same tactic as “recovery room” fraud, where scammers contact prior victims and offer bogus recovery help for another fee.
Crypto still has a trust problem
The uncomfortable point for the industry is that scams like this keep flourishing because crypto remains an ideal wrapper for fraud: fast settlement, global reach, weak user due diligence and a retail audience trained to chase asymmetric upside. In another crypto.news story, Coinbase warned that Gen Z users are increasingly exposed to fake websites, social media scams and recovery schemes, underlining how age and digital fluency do not automatically protect people from sophisticated fraud.
There is also nothing uniquely Australian about the playbook. A previous crypto.news article described Indian police shutting down a fake platform promoted on WhatsApp and Telegram that allegedly stole more than $90,000, while New Zealand’s FMA has issued similar warnings about fake crypto investment platforms spread through social media.
ASIC’s most useful instruction is the least glamorous one: verify before sending money. AUSTRAC says any business providing virtual asset services in Australia must be registered, and that operating such services without registration is illegal, which means the register is not a magic shield but it is still a basic filter for obvious fraud. For a sector that keeps promising mass adoption, that is the embarrassing reality: too many new users still meet crypto first through a scam.
