Australian Police Warn of ReportCyber Crypto Scam

Australian authorities have issued urgent warnings after uncovering a sophisticated scam where cybercriminals exploit the government's official cybercrime reporting platform, ReportCyber, to impersonate federal police officers and steal cryptocurrency from victims across the country.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP), through its Joint Policing Cybercrime Coordination Centre (JPC3), revealed that fraudsters are using stolen personal information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, to submit false reports on ReportCyber. These reports falsely link victims to cryptocurrency-related investigations or data breaches. Scammers then contact the targets, posing as AFP officers, and provide legitimate-looking reference numbers that victims can verify on the platform, lending credibility to the deception. In many cases, a second caller, pretending to be from the victim's cryptocurrency exchange, reinforces the story and pressures them to transfer funds to a supposed secure cold wallet controlled by the scammers.

The scheme relies on social engineering tactics, including spoofed phone numbers that mimic official AFP lines, to create urgency and trust. Detective Superintendent...