Austrian regulators are calling for stricter crypto laws amidst rising scams involving cryptocurrency and digital assets.
It has been reported that Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) has revealed that more than 60% of all reported financial fraud in the country involve crypto trading products.
However, the FMA said these crypto scammers are using social media platforms like Telegram and TikTok to advertise their fraudulent offerings to would-be victims.
Klaus Grubelnik, a spokesperson for the FMA, said:
“We see a great need for stricter regulation. Fake offerings for stocks and gold have been around forever and these scams are now shifting to digital assets because of the hype.”
Likewise, the surge in crypto scam whistle-blower reports in 2020 could be linked to a general increase in cryptocurrency-related fraud amid the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The report said that back in 2018, Austria’s finance minister Hartwig Löger called for pan-European Union crypto regulations to combat money laundering. At the time, Löger’s comments came amid the recently discovered Optioment Bitcoin pyramid scheme that siphoned over 12,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from the victims of the scam.
A new report shows that 60% of financial fraud in Austria stems from cryptocurrency. Most of these cases involve social media, causing the government to investigate increasing regulation around digital assets. https://t.co/BAMfs0CrXp — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 19, 2021
Thus, traditional exchanges in the country are still at the heart of boosting the adoption of digital asset trading, despite the apparent increase in reported crypto scam investments in Austria.
Source: Cointelegraph