Imagine your entire superannuation and life savings vanishing in one day — all because of one convincing video from social media.
West Australians are increasingly being duped by celebrity and crypto cons, resulting in millions of dollars being stolen.
New research by WA ScamNet revealed that almost 50 WA residents have fallen victim to investment scams in 2025, resulting in $10.8 million being stolen.
In 2024 alone, 76 WA victims reported handing over nearly $19.4 million to scammers and their schemes.
One victim was reported to have lost an astonishing $10 million after being lured in by a “deepfake” online celebrity endorsement video.
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Deepfakes are lifelike impersonations of real people, oftentimes celebrities, created by artificial intelligence.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said that the WA victim was just one of many Aussies falling for the scams.
“We know of an Australian man who lost $80,000 after seeing a deepfake Elon Musk video interview on social media, clicking the link and registering his details through an online form,” Ms Lowe said.
Celebrity deepfake scams have exploded globally with the rise of AI, with one highly notable incident in January resulting in a French woman revealing that she had lost $1.3 million to “actor Brad Pitt” — except it wasn’t him, it was a scammer using deepfake images.
Consumer Protection commissioner Trish Blake said that scammers were getting better at using celebrity images to dupe vulnerable individuals.
“The use of celebrity images, increasingly in deepfake videos, to endorse investment schemes is a deliberate tactic by scammers to fabricate legitimacy and entice victims with promises of rapid wealth,” she said.
“Being told to deposit more money to access your funds, citing taxes or other fees is a major red flag of an investment scam, so too are pressure tactics like being told your account will be frozen if you don’t invest more.”
Another investment scam causing distress in 2024 and 2025 were fake cryptocurrency trading, with victims believing they were investing in “low-risk, high-return” schemes.
WA ScamNet observed a rise in scammers infiltrating legitimate platforms to sell fraudulent cryptocurrency coins or “mystery coins” that drain wallets of legitimate currency.
“Crypto scammers thrive on market complexity, using confusion and fake ‘insider knowledge’ to trick you,” Ms Blake said.
“They call their victims regularly, offering to set up their trading profiles to gain access to devices, while manipulating them into handing over their superannuation to invest.”
Consumer Protections WA urges Aussies interested in cryptocurrency to conduct thorough research, read websites critically and be suspicious of promises that sound too good to be true.
Ms Blake warned that people who have fallen victim to scams previously were at higher risk of scammers returning for a second attempt.
“After falling victim to an investment scam, many are again approached by so-called ‘recovery experts’, claiming they can retrieve lost funds,” she said.
“These follow-up scams prey on hope and desperation and can lead to even greater losses.”
Further information about scams and where to report them can be found on the WA ScamNet website.
