Report: Australia lost more than $35 million in cryptocurrency scams in the first half of this year

According to data from Scamwatch, an agency under the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, investment scams caused Australians to lose more than 70 million US dollars in the first half of this year, exceeding the total losses reported to Scamwatch for the whole year of 2020, and losses are expected to reach 140 million US dollars by the end of the year.

More than half of the $70 million in losses were in cryptocurrencies, particularly through Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency scams were also the most common type of investment scam, with 2,240 reports.