Australian regulator trials auto take-down of crypto scam sites
Cybersecurity specialists have welcomed a new trial by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to automatically take down scam websites. The trial saw dozens of scam sites, including crypto scams, knocked offline after more than 300 were reported.
The ACCC reported that Australians had lost $113 million in cryptocurrency scams last year. The new trial will be in partnership with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and will focus on efficiently removing scam websites once they have been reported to Australian regulators to protect potential investors from falling victim to crypto fraud.
The ACCC is using a countermeasures service from the United Kingdom-based Netcraft, which has been providing a similar service for the past four years to the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre.
According to an IT News report, sites already taken down include “phishing sites impersonating Australian businesses and government authorities,” along with “puppy scams, shoe scams, cryptocurrency investment scams and tech support scams.”
Ken Gamble, executive chairman of private intelligence firm IFW Global, praised the development. He told Cointelegraph this is “the best news he has heard,” as he had “seen the damage these sites made by sophisticated fraudsters have done using state of the art digital marketing techniques:”
Gamble said that Australian government agencies also need to be open to collaborating with the private sector to see real success.
“We need law enforcement involved and collaborate with different countries […] many of these major cryptocurrency exchanges aren’t helpful with fraud investigations, making our investigations a lot harder than necessary.”
Gamble said that individuals researching
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