ASIC Crushes Record 12K Scam Sites, AI Blamed

0:00It's April 7th. I'm Cory with the story. This is Sydney News Today, driven by AI. Australia's financial watchdog just crushed nearly 12,000 scam websites last year, shutting down 11,964. Fishing and fake investment sites. That's a 90% jump from the 6,270 they took out in 2024. Averaging 32 sites a day or two. 130 a week. They're calling it a record and they blame artificial intelligence for supercharging these online threats. ASIC uses a third-party scanner to hunt these sites down, plus tips from the public in banks, then verifies and yanks them offline. Since starting this service in 2023, they've zapped over 25,000 total, including more than 1,100 scam. Ads on social media. Good news is, investment scam losses dropped about 11% for Aussies. Folks lost $2 billion, $180 million to all scams in 2025, with 481,500.

1:0023 reports filed. Experts like Cyber Prof Paul Haskell Dalin say, AI flips the script, letting crooks whip up hundreds of slick sites instantly, way better than clunky. Old methods. Now, scams look pro, hit specific targets using social media data, and even pedal fake AI trading bots. Scammers hype AI as magic returns machines to lure victims and new laws from last February aimed to hit back. The scam protection framework makes banks, tech giants, and telcos share blame, forcing ad checks, pay IDs, and scam call blocks, but roll out dates are still fuzzy. Regulators know threats keep morphing fast, so they're evolving too, staying in this cat-and-mouse chase. With AI exploding overnight, everyone's watching how it plays out next.