The National Anti-Scam Centre of Australia is warning consumers to beware of fake news articles and deeply fake videos from public figures endorsing or providing links to scams on online investment trading platforms, especially on social media.。

Australians reportedly lost more than $8 million to online investment trading platform scams last year, with Scamwatch receiving 400 reports.。

Catriona Lowe, vice president of the ACCC, said: "The scammers are creating fake news articles and videos that are circulating on social media and video sharing platforms, often claiming that online trading platforms use other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence or quantum computing to generate high returns for investors, but this is not the case.。"

An Australian man who saw Elon Musk's deeply faked interview video on social media, clicked on a link and registered his details via an online form has lost $80,000 in cryptocurrency.。He was given an account manager and an online dashboard where he could see his investments purportedly making huge returns.。But when he tried to withdraw money, he was locked out of his account。

Scamwatch received reports that "Quantum AI is the most common online investment trading platform scam, along with Immediate Edge, Immediate Connect, Immediate X3 and Quantum Trade Wave."。

The Investment Fraud Fusion Group of the National Anti-Fraud Center, jointly led by ACCC and ASIC, has been actively combating investment fraud such as online investment trading platform fraud.。

Lowe said: "In addition to redirecting these scam ads to social media platforms for removal, the fusion team has also developed a pilot method to prevent payments to these scams.。

How online investment trading platform scams work:

• The scammers lured their victims through social media ads, deeply fake videos on video-sharing platforms and fake online news articles about celebrities and high-profile public figures, claiming to earn large amounts of money from online trading platforms.。
• The misinformation links to a scam site that prompts victims to enter their details.。The scammer asked for a small investment of around $250 via credit card in order to enter the trading platform。
• Crooks often ask new investors to download a third-party trading platform through the relevant app store or provide investors with login details for an online dashboard。
• After showing profits through a dedicated online dashboard, the scammer will persuade the victim to invest more。Sometimes, crooks allow victims to withdraw small amounts of money early in the scam to build trust。
• When the victim finally tries to withdraw money, the scammer will ask the victim to pay for the withdrawal or ask a tax question in order to defraud him of more money。Some of the victims said their accounts were locked。