Australian Authorities Warn Scammers are Impersonating Police to Steal Crypto

Scammers in Australia have been posing as police and abusing official government systems to steal cryptocurrency, according to a new warning from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

The AFP says criminals have been filing fake complaints about their targets through ReportCyber, Australia’s official online portal for reporting cybercrime. Later, the same scammers contact the victim while pretending to be police officers and direct them to government websites to “verify” the case, making the fraud appear legitimate.

In one reported case, the scammers told a victim they would soon be contacted by a representative from a cryptocurrency company. That second caller then attempted to pressure the victim into moving funds from their exchange or platform wallet into a wallet controlled by the scammers, claiming it was needed for an investigation.

AFP Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson said the fraudsters falsely claimed that someone had been arrested and that the victim’s identity was linked to a cryptocurrency breach. She warned that the scammers’ verification steps closely copy real law enforcement procedures, which can make the scheme highly convincing.

Andersson urged people to hang up immediately if they are contacted about a ReportCyber complaint they did not file or authorize. She stressed that genuine police will never ask for remote access to devices, cryptocurrency wallet details, seed phrases, or direct control over bank or crypto accounts.

The warning comes as Australia intensifies its crackdown on cryptocurrency crime. In October, AFP investigators cracked an encrypted backup for a crypto wallet holding 9 million Australian dollars ($5.9 million) believed to be crime proceeds. Regulators have also shut down thousands of scam websites, and officials in Tasmania recently revealed that the 15 heaviest users of local crypto ATMs were all scam victims, losing a combined $1.6 million.