Australia’s financial regulator is launching a new strategy to combat investment scams after Australians lost A$837.7 million to fraudulent schemes in 2025, making it the country’s largest scam loss category. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is inviting over 6,500 licensed firms to register their legitimate website addresses on a new whitelist, shifting from its reactive approach of removing fake sites after they appear. ASIC took down 11,964 phishing and scam websites in 2025, a 90 percent increase from the previous year, averaging 32 removals daily.
The whitelist’s effectiveness depends on three critical factors: voluntary participation rates among licensees, whether advertising platforms verify submissions against the register, and how ASIC addresses authorized representatives who operate outside the register’s current scope. The challenge remains significant, with brokers like Pepperstone dedicating near full-time resources to fighting clones. Similar tools in the UK have shown mixed results, with investment fraud losses still reaching £144.4 million in 2024 despite comparable verification systems.
FXnCO Insight
Brokers should register immediately while monitoring whether incomplete adoption creates new consumer confusion that scammers can exploit.
Source: Finance Magnates