1289 exactly, were the reports of cryptocurrency scams received by the Australian consumer watchdog body in 2017.
The Australian Competition and Consumption Commission (ACCC) reported this situation and the loss of a total of US $ 1,218,206 according to the data obtained from its Scamwatch program. This news comes out afloat once the country makes changes in terms of its regulations for stricter surveillance of the cryptocurrency market.
In statements given to the current affairs program 7.30 of the ABC the head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), John Price, warned that "it has been well documented that some of these products are scams, so please do not invest unless you're ready to lose part or all of your money. "
The Australian center of reports and analysis (Austrac), received authorization in the month of December to monitor the exchanges of bitcoins in the country. This, resulting in the new transactions must be registered in Austrac and in an exclusive registry.
As well as this new requirement, other procedures were established in order to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism, as well as verify the identity of the users and keep a detailed record for a period of 7 years.
Not only Australia has focused on preventing these new frauds in the cryptocurrency market, other authorities in different parts of the world are beginning to take action in this regard.
On the other hand in New York the county prosecutor's office has closed more than 70 Bitcoin investment sites as reported by coindesk in January. Because of this, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have taken action in recent weeks.
Airesebank was one of the first targets of the SEC announcing an order to cease operation of the firm for alleged fraud and violations of securities regulations on January 25. At the same time, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against My Big Coin for alleged fraud, as well as two other lawsuits filed shortly before against other possible fraudulent investment schemes in cryptocurrencies.