Australia’s financial regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has shut down nearly 12,000 scam websites in 2025, warning that artificial intelligence (AI) is “supercharging” online threats and making scams increasingly difficult to combat.
According to ABC, ASIC coordinated the removal of 11,964 phishing and investment scam websites over the course of 2025, a record number representing a 90% increase in takedowns compared with 2024, when 6,270 sites were removed. The regulator averaged 32 websites per day, or 230 each week, underscoring the sheer scale of the challenge facing authorities.
Since launching its takedown service in 2023, ASIC has removed more than 25,000 investment scam and phishing websites in total. In addition to targeting scam websites, the regulator also took down more than 1,100 online investment scam ads on social media platforms.
Despite the surge in takedowns, there are signs the efforts are beginning to bear fruit. ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland noted a decline of around 11% in losses reported by Australians due to investment scams, suggesting the regulator’s intervention is having a measurable impact.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said, “So that says to us, [we have] to do more to stay on top of this, but we are actually having an impact.”
He explained that a third-party provider actively scans the web for investment scam websites, which are then reviewed and confirmed by ASIC before removal instructions are issued. Reports from members of the public and financial institutions, including banks, are also fed through the same process.
Kirkland said, “We have a third-party provider that actively scans the web looking for investment scam websites. When it identifies them, it refers them to us, we check them, we confirm that in our view that [it is] a scam website, and then we instruct them to take it down.”
He added, “We do also receive reports from members of the public and from financial institutions like banks, and they get fed through the same process. It’s really important for us to know that we’re on the lookout for these websites.”
The broader picture remains concerning. Australians lost a total of $2.18bn to scams in 2025, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams Report, with 481,523 scams reported to various watchdogs during the same period. That report also highlighted a growing “sophistication” in scam tactics, driven by scammers using AI to generate content. Federal government watchdog Scamwatch has separately warned of scammers leveraging AI to produce fake videos and audio, as well as to better tailor their schemes to potential victims.
Since launching its takedown service in 2023, ASIC has been forced to continuously evolve its approach to keep pace with the rapidly changing threat landscape.
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