New Trend in Crypto Fraud – Stealing Millions of Dollars Posing as Police

Criminals in Australia are impersonating law enforcement officers and using fake cybercrime reports to trick people into believing their personal data has been compromised.

The hacker then pressures the victim to transfer their cryptocurrencies to a scam-controlled wallet and drains the funds.

Fraudsters exploit fake police reports

Australian authorities have issued a warning after discovering a scam in which cybercriminals impersonate federal police officers to steal cryptocurrencies.

The AFP-led Cybercrime Coordination Center has detected a series of schemes in which fraudsters obtain personal information and use it to file fake cybercrime reports through the government’s ReportCyber ​​portal.

The scammers then reportedly call the victims and claim that their data showed up in a cryptocurrency-related breach. Scammers share a reference number that looks genuine and instruct victims to verify it online. The report appears in the system so the call appears to be legitimate.

A second caller, posing as the victim’s cryptocurrency platform, prompts you to move your assets to what appears to be a cold storage wallet.

Officials stressed that real law enforcement officers would never request access to cryptocurrency accounts, seed phrases, or bank account details.

The incident highlights a growing problem as scammers increasingly use social engineering and spoofed phone numbers to trick victims.

Social engineering threats continue to grow

The Australian scam comes amid a clear escalation in social engineering attacks targeting crypto holders globally.

In August 2025, victims lost $91 million worth of Bitcoin when scammers impersonated support staff from Coinbase and other major crypto services, making it one of the largest single thefts of its kind.

Prior to this, a scammer posing as a police officer defrauded another victim in the UK. This user lost $2.8 million in Bitcoin through a fake cold storage website.

In May, a global phishing network masquerading as Coinbase stole more than $20 million by directing users to spoofed support sites.

Taken together, these examples demonstrate the growing scale and sophistication of social engineering attacks in the cryptocurrency space.

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