Australian Securities and Investments Commission brought action against HSBC Australia in December
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has assisted in shutting down over 10,000 investment scam websites and online advertisements, for an average of 130 investment scam websites per week, new data revealed.
“Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated technology to steal money from hard-working Australians with investment scams that can look shockingly legitimate,” said Sarah Court, ASIC’s deputy chairperson, in a media release.
“This new data demonstrates that ASIC is making Australia safer by stamping out these scams before they reach Australians,” Court added in the media release.
The ASIC’s latest enforcement and regulatory update showed that recent removals included 7,227 fake investment platform scams, 1,564 phishing scam hyperlinks, and 1,257 cryptocurrency investment scams, said the media release from the agency.
The report also revealed that, within the latter half of 2024, the ASIC:
“ASIC will continue to protect Australians from scams by removing them before they reach consumers and holding financial institutions accountable for their scam detection and response practices,” Court said in the media release.
“The changes we have made mean ASIC is able to more efficiently process intelligence, leading to earlier commencement of investigations and surveillances,” said Joe Longo, ASIC’s chairperson, in the media release.
“We anticipate the increased number of investigations we have commenced will flow through to significant compliance, enforcement and consumer outcomes in the year ahead,” Longo added in the media release.
The ASIC said that its enforcement priorities for this year would seek to prevent financial harm and to reflect the increased cost-of-living pressures that consumers have been facing in recent times.
“As outlined in our 2025 Enforcement Priorities, banks, insurance companies and superannuation trustees are on notice, and we are concerned by the inconsistencies and complacency we have observed,” Longo said in the ASIC’s media release.
Reports by the ASIC found that the anti-scam practices of 15 banks showed much room for improvement, according to the media release.
The ASIC shared in its media release that it brought a court proceeding against HSBC Australia last December. This action argued that there were failures to sufficiently safeguard customers, who were allegedly scammed out of millions of dollars.
Before the NSW Supreme Court, the ASIC began proceedings claiming that Regional Express Holdings Limited engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and contravened continuous disclosure obligations.
