Australian Couple Loses $900,000 In A Crypto Scam

Australian Couple Mike Taylor and his wife Karen in their mid-seventies lost more than $900,000 after investing in an elaborate cryptocurrency scam according to the reports we have in our latest cryptocurrency news below.

The Australian Couple told the 7News local station that the losses included their lifetime savings:

 “That was the whole of our superannuation – that’s now gone.”

They didn’t explain how the scheme actually worked but Taylor commented that it was during a crypto trading scam website that promised high returns. He added that they decided to invest because the site ‘’looked legitimate.’’ The couple decided during a trip around the country to invest in the scam. They stated that the money basically disappeared and left the couple and many other Australians in the bankruptcy. Taylor told 7News that he had to go back to work and sell his old 1965 Pontiac in order to make the ends meet.

This is not an isolated case according to the reports. On the contrary to what people think, crypto scams have increased massively since 2017 according to the reports issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission since 2018 that the losses generated by the crypto scams reached about $6.11 million which shows a massive 190 percent increase over 2017.

With the new addition of the $990,000 already gone, 2019 sets a new trend for crypto scams and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is aware of this happening. There is a 32 percent increase in fraud since 2018 with more than 2,400 reported cases. The Australian watchdog announced the new corporate action plan for 2018 that the crypto sectors and ICOs are the number one priority. If the new policies become a success the country will be able to reduce the crypto scam phenomenon.

One strategy that showed to be successful among the scammers is to usurp the identity of celebrities to deceive users. The most popular case was the one of High Jackman which guaranteed returns of more than 10,000 percent. The cryptocurrencies have characteristics that could complicate the protection of users in times of fraud mainly because the transactions are irreversible which makes it impossible for any entity to return funds to a scam victim. Also, the network is decentralized and removes the control from the bank but also there is a high level of anonymity which makes it difficult to know who owns a particular wallet as noted in the altcoin news reports.