To better combat fraudulent investment scams and better protect Australians, the Australian Security and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) takedown actions now include social media ads that direct Australians to counterfeit investment sites, as reported in a media release published in August 2025.
As explained by ASIC Deputy Director Sarah Court: “Expanding our investment scam takedown capability to social media ads will help safeguard Australian consumers”.
What is an investment scam?
An investment scam is a fraudulent scheme wherein a scammer attempts to trick a target into investing in a financial product that doesn’t actually exist. Examples of this include fake cryptocurrency platforms, fake bonds, and Ponzi schemes.
Top 5 most prevalent investment scams
ASIC’s update also identified the five most common types of online investment scams currently being utilised by scammers:
- AI washing
- Scam website templates
- Fake third-party content
- Fake news articles
- Cloaking
AI washing: Claiming (fake) trading bots are able to generate passive income by using AI
Scam website templates: Creating professional-looking but ultimately fake websites, as well as fake corporate documents and chatbots
Fake third-party content: Using fake third-party content (i.e. content created by an outside party) to add an air of legitimacy to a fake website
Fake news articles: Creating fraudulent news pages that are enhanced with fake celebrity promotions to gather information on visitors and ultimately contact potential targets
Cloaking: Presenting different versions of a website and its content to what’s shown to search engines
Traditional versus non-traditional toolkits
ASIC delineated between traditional and newer, less-traditional ways of dealing with online scams. Historically, traditional avenues of dealing with such problems have involved measures such as investigations and court/administrative actions.
Such processes can be time consuming and, per ASIC’s own words, they “can’t combat the scourge of online scams on their own” – which is where website takedown actions come into play.
Know the signs
ASIC has a three-step system it advises all Australians to keep in mind when dealing with suspicious investment offers: Stop, Check, Protect.
Stop: Be cautious, don’t rush, distrust AI claims, and steer clear of offers delivered via direct messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Signal.
Check: Do a proper amount of due diligence research on companies and determine if ASIC has provided them with a license or listed them on the MoneySmart investor alert list and ask questions such as “does the investment make sense?” and “does its webpage feature news articles from credible sites?”
Protect: Know what to do and where to go for help and to complain should it be needed.
Scam templates
In its update, ASIC provided examples of website templates with similar appearances – to convey to readers how easy it is to assemble seemingly credible-looking sites that are in fact fraudulent.
ASIC enforcement and regulatory update
Also included in the media release was news of ASIC’s half-yearly enforcement and regulatory update, which covers the period of January – June 2025. The report provides readers with an executive summary, highlights, as well as current priorities, and assorted actions taken by ASIC over the six-month period to improve regulatory compliance and financial market integrity, as well as what steps ASIC has taken to protect consumers, small businesses, and investors.
And as highlighted in the media release, one of the big takeaways from the report was that since takedown actions began in 2023, over 14,000 phishing and investment scam sites have been taken offline.
Statistics
To convey just how successful ASIC’s takedown efforts have been over the past few years, the media release contrasted 2022 data with 2024 data provided by the National Anti-Scam Centre, which revealed that between 2022 and 2024, as a result of ASIC’s takedown efforts, investment scam-related losses have dropped by $2,155,000,000 – from $3.1 billion in 2022 to $945 million in 2024.
Furthermore, of the more than 14,000 takedowns that ASIC actioned between July 2023 and June 2025, the media release revealed:
- 8,330 involved fake investment platform scams
- 2,465 hyperlinks for phishing scams were removed
- 3,015 cryptocurrency investment scams were shut down
What to do if you’ve been scammed
ASIC encourages anyone who thinks they may be involved in a scam or have been scammed to “act fast” and contact ScamWatch, where an incident can be reported either via phone or an online form.
Key takeaways
The fight against investment scammers is an endless one, but as evidenced by the dramatic increase in website and service takedowns and dramatic drop in money lost to scams between 2022 and 2024, the work done by ASIC’s takedown team has had a provable positive outcome. The addition of social media ads to ASIC’s takedown toolkit will only help the organisation build upon its existing successes and goal of protecting Australians from investment scams.
