- Aussie YouTuber Jamie Zhu has released a video investigating crypto scams to highlight the importance of education and awareness to keep your assets safe.
- Zhu spoke to Daniel who lost over AU$1 million in the blink of an eye when the centralised exchange FTX spectacularly collapsed in 2022 due to SBF’s mismanagement and fraud.
- He also discusses Brisbane-based crypto exchange Swyftx’s anti-scam ‘learn and earn’ program that pays investors to learn about crypto scams.
As we enter another crypto bull market we’re all hopefully starting to see some long awaited return on investment after what was an especially brutal crypto winter. But the scammers are here for this crypto spring too — their beady little eyes lighting up at the sight of our green candles as they redouble their efforts to get their dirty little paws on our phat gains.
I know what you’re thinking — “now would be a good time for a big Aussie YouTuber to make a vid about scams” — honestly reader, you’re smarter than you look.
Happily, one of Australia’s biggest YouTubers, Jamie Zhu, has shared a video investigating the growing issue of Aussies falling victim to scams, particularly crypto scams. Zhu highlights that over 600,000 scams have been reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in the past year, resulting in over AUD$2 billion in financial losses.
The video also includes interviews with victims of all kinds of scams, including identity theft and romance scams. But the biggest losses reported by the victims he spoke to came through crypto. Zhu’s investigation also covered the importance of security consciousness and scam awareness for crypto investors. He learnt of a new anti-scam ‘learn and earn’ program run by the Brisbane-based crypto exchange SwyftX, which incentivises users to learn about scams in return for digital assets.
Related: ABC Report: Aussies Targeted for Crypto Scams as “Easy Prey”
Scam Safety Vital for Crypto Investors
Zhu spoke to Daniel, a victim of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, who lost over AUD$1 million in the blink of an eye after the exchange spectacularly collapsed in 2022 due to the mismanagement and fraud of its founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. After talking to Daniel about his devastating losses, Zhu sits down with Gabby Lewis, the Head of Fraud and Financial Crime at Swyftx, to find out what crypto investors can do to minimise the risk of this kind of thing happening to them.
Lewis told Zhu that while crypto is very exciting to investors, like all investments it also comes with risks which must be understood. She said that in terms of Aussie crypto exchanges, Swyftx leads the pack when it comes to security, explaining:
What I think truly sets us apart is our investment in security. We have invested in plenty of educational programs, such as our scams ‘learn and earn’. It’s the first of its kind, to the best of our knowledge it hasn’t been done before.
Gabby Lewis, Head of Fraud and Financial Crime at Swyftx
Going into some more detail on Swyftx’s ‘learn and earn’ program, Lewis explained that it’s a “program [the exchange] developed where we actually reward our customers for learning about cryptocurrency scams…we entice and get people to want to educate themselves.” Customers can earn rewards, credited directly to their account, for scoring well on a quiz following the course.
Swyftx’s commitment to security extends beyond education though, according to figures cited by Zhu in his video, 14% of Swyftx’s staff work in compliance and security and less than 0.12% of all deposits to the exchange are flagged as potentially illicit. Despite risky deposits being such a small percentage of the total, Swyftx’s focus on security has nonetheless protected their customers from losing over AUD$10 million in just the past 12 months.
According to Lewis, some of the biggest threats faced by crypto investors are social engineering scams in which scammers trick investors into divulging sensitive information.
One of the leading dangers Lewis mentioned was the notorious “hey mum” voice cloning scams, where parents are targeted through phone calls which use AI to impersonate their child’s voice. Lewis says scammers may only need as little as five seconds of someone’s voice to create a clone and target their loved ones, tricking them into sharing information like account passwords or credit numbers.
A report from the University of Queensland released earlier this year highlighted the urgent need for high quality scam education from trustworthy sources. The report found that contrary to what some had believed, socioeconomic status is not a primary risk factor for falling victim to a crypto scam, but rather a lack of scam education and awareness is what makes an investor vulnerable.
Related: ACCC Alleges Over Half of Facebook’s Crypto Ads Are Scams or Violate Policies
Investors looking to learn more about crypto scams and how to protect themselves can complete the Swyftx scam ‘learn and earn’ module, potentially earning themselves some Bitcoin if they pass the final quiz.