Criminals in Australia are impersonating law enforcement officers and using forged cybercrime reports to scam people into believing their personal data has been compromised.
Then, hackers pressure victims into transferring their crypto to scam-controlled wallets, draining their funds.
Scammers Exploit Fake Police Reports
Australian authorities have issued a warning after uncovering a scam in which cybercriminals impersonate federal police to steal cryptocurrency.
The AFP-led cybercrime coordination center has detected a series of schemes in which scammers obtain personal information and use it to lodge fake cybercrime reports through the government’s ReportCyber portal.
Scammers then reportedly call victims and claim their data appeared in a cryptocurrency-related breach. The scammers share a real-looking reference number and direct victims to check it online. The report appears in the system, which makes the call seem legitimate.
A second caller, pretending to be from the victim’s crypto platform, urges them to move their assets into a supposed cold storage wallet.
Officials emphasized that genuine law enforcement officers will never request access to cryptocurrency accounts, seed phrases, or banking details.
This case highlights a growing problem, as scammers are increasingly using social engineering and spoofed phone numbers to deceive victims.
Social Engineering Threats Continue Growing
The Australian scam emerges amid a clear global escalation in social engineering attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders.
In August 2025, a victim lost $91 million worth of Bitcoin after scammers impersonated support staff from Coinbase and major crypto services, marking one of the largest single thefts of its kind.
Earlier, in the United Kingdom, a fraudster posing as a senior police officer deceived another victim. The user lost $2.8 million in Bitcoin through a fake cold-storage website.
In May, a global phishing network impersonating Coinbase stole over $20 million by directing users to spoofed support sites.
Collectively, these cases demonstrate the increasing scale and sophistication of social engineering attacks in the cryptocurrency sector.
