Crypto scams will increase over the holidays – here’s how you can avoid them
Each year, as the festive season arrives, we must also keep an eye out for potential scammers trying to ruin the fun. This is because scammers become more active during the holidays, targeting us while we have our guard down. So far in 2022, Australians have lost about half a billion dollars to scams, which is already significantly more than had been lost by this time last year. Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >> The majority of these losses – about $300 million – involved investment or cryptocurrency scams . Investment scams 2019-2022. Credit: scamwatch.gov.au Deakin University Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation researchers interviewed recent victims of such scams . Here is what they found. Anyone can fall for a scam “I was shocked and could not accept that this happened to me although I was very careful … I was numb for a couple of minutes as it was a large amount of money,” a 26-year-old female office manager from South Australi...