Regulators worldwide are grappling with a new generation of investment fraud built almost entirely on artificial intelligence, and Australia’s latest enforcement data illustrates the scale of the challenge. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission removed 3,106 online scams linked to cryptocurrency investments during the 2025-26 financial year, a figure nearly 30 per cent higher than the previous year. Across all categories, ASIC’s total online scam takedowns surged 182 per cent, with more than 19,400 fraudulent websites, investment platforms and suspicious links pulled offline.
The findings carry direct relevance for Indian investors, who have faced a parallel surge in AI-generated financial fraud in recent months. What Australia’s regulator has documented in granular enforcement numbers mirrors a pattern Indian authorities have been warning against with growing urgency, where synthetic video and voice are used to lend false credibility to fraudulent schemes.
The Machinery Behind a Fabricated Investment
According to ASIC, criminals removed during the year included 7,051 fake investment platforms and 5,476 phishing links, with fake platform takedowns rising 151 per cent and phishing link removals climbing 279 per cent compared with the prior year. The regulator noted a deliberate shift in tactics, with fraudsters no longer relying on a single fake website but constructing entire digital ecosystems, complete with fabricated news coverage, fake reviews and AI-generated social media commentary, to make a fraudulent platform appear credible under scrutiny.
This layered approach means a potential victim conducting a basic online search before investing may still encounter what looks like independent corroboration, when in fact the entire information environment around the scheme has been manufactured. ASIC Chair Sarah Court said the sophistication of AI-generated material meant a standard search was no longer sufficient to judge legitimacy, and cautioned that polished websites and convincing testimonials should never be treated as proof on their own.
When Familiar Faces Become Fraud’s Currency
Central to these schemes is the impersonation of trusted public figures. ASIC found that AI-generated videos featuring politicians, financial commentators and other well-known personalities were being used to promote fabricated automated trading systems, with scams involving the ten most impersonated figures resulting in reported losses exceeding A$7.4 million during the year. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among those most frequently impersonated.
India has encountered its own version of this problem in recent months. The Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check Unit debunked a deepfake video falsely showing Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsing an investment scheme promising implausible daily returns, while BSE separately warned investors about a fabricated video of its managing director offering stock recommendations. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has also flagged a related fraud pattern involving AI voice cloning and deepfake video calls used to impersonate corporate executives and trigger fraudulent fund transfers.
The Withdrawal Trap and What Regulators Recommend
ASIC’s investigation detailed how these schemes typically unfold once a victim is drawn in. Fake trading dashboards are designed to display rising balances and apparent profits even though no genuine investment activity occurs, while deposited money is quietly diverted to criminal networks operating domestically or overseas. When victims eventually attempt to withdraw their supposed earnings, scammers frequently demand additional payments framed as withdrawal fees, extracting further money before the fraud is discovered.
Regulators on both sides of this pattern are converging on similar advice. ASIC has urged investors to independently verify licensing details through its official registers rather than trusting a licence number displayed on a website, while SEBI has repeatedly cautioned Indian investors against unsolicited investment messages and unverified WhatsApp groups, recommending that registration status always be checked directly through the regulator’s own channels rather than through claims made on the platform itself.
