Australian Couple Lose Over $100K To Crypto Scam

A young Australian couple is using their personal experience to sound a note of warning to potential crypto investors. The warning comes after they lost well over $100,000 to scammers while trying to invest in cryptocurrency.

Australian Couple Loses $100,000 to Fake Crypto Investment

Identified as Emma Robinson and Hugo De Meira Quintao, the Australian couple has narrated their ordeal at the hands of a scammer, per ABC reports. According to them, they were saving up for their first home when a company caught their attention and influenced their decision to invest in shares in a crypto exchange. The company’s name was StockLaunch.
Speaking to ABC, Hugo says they felt the company was a legitimate business in Ireland and were hoping to buy into a stock launch for CoinBase. As it would turn out, however, the scammers had cloned the address of the real CoinBase platform and were actually stealing their funds.

Hugo added that they began suspecting when one of the scammers broke an accent during one of their conversations.

Meanwhile, Emma who had been investing in the stock exchange since her school days also said she felt off when her last deposit of $7,000 bounced.

In total, the Australian couple lost over $100,000 in a series of deposits to the imposters.

Experts Speak About Rising Rates of Crypto Scams

Without a doubt, there is an increasing rate of scams in the crypto industry, with scammers devising various tactics to defraud their potential victims. While some advertise fake token offerings, others use ATMs and QR codes.

Meanwhile, experts have lent their opinions as to why they think Australia is attracting a new wave of crypto scams.

Reports say that Australians have poured no less than $8billion into crypto over the past few years since its adoption, and that amount of exposure and wealth has made the country a major target for fraud.

According to Securitybrief Australia statistics, there’s an average of 300,000 cases of cyber fraud per year in Australia, with losses to the tune of $42billion.