Peter is one of many who have been duped into sending their hard-earned money to online investment platforms being promoted on social media using Australian celebrities and politicians. (Source: Supplied/Getty)
The fake article suggested the platform had just been opened up to Aussies who could "cash in on the digital currency boom". The 69-year-old told Yahoo Finance the ruse started small and seemed legitimate as it featured the prime minister.
"I only started with US$250, and they started trading on the platform with commodities, and I made $52 just overnight," he said.
The Tasmanian resident said the scammers convinced him in March last year that the Aussie dollar was depreciating against the US dollar and that he would earn far more on the platform than by putting his money in a high-interest bank account.
"Then they encourage you to put more money in and exchange it into US dollars to trade on the commodities," Riseley said.
They were calling him up to four times a day to get the retiree to invest more of his money.
The 69-year-old was suspicious that every time the scammers called him, it was always from a different phone number.
But they assured him that it was because it was a call centre and that he needed to trust them.
When he hit his bank's $5,000 daily withdrawal limit, they coached him on how to increase it.
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"When the bank security team questioned the increase, they coached me on what to say to them as well," he said.
They also encouraged him to download an app that granted them remote access to his device, which allowed them to move the money without him lifting a finger.
In one instance, they transferred $40,000 out of his account and into the online platform.
Riseley said he kept plunging cash into the platform over two months until he realised he had spent a whopping $140,746.
Despite making a complaint to his bank, NAB, and preparing a report for the police, he said he hasn't been able to recover his money. That cash was being saved up to build a granny flat on his property, but now those plans have been scuppered.
NAB's Executive Group Investigations, Chris Sheehan, told Yahoo Finance the bank has been investing "heavily" in scam prevention measures.
"While NAB acts as quickly as possible to recover funds, it’s often extremely difficult when money has been sent to largely unregulated cryptocurrency platforms," he said.
"If an offer seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. If you believe you’ve been a victim of a scam, contact your bank immediately.”
Big-name celebrities used to suck Aussies into the scam
Queensland woman Susan, who requested her last name not be used, fell for the same type of scam featuring Robert Irwin.
She saw an online ad claiming the famous wildlife warrior had grown his wealth by investing in cryptocurrency.
She set up a phone call with a man in the UK who explained how the system worked and he told her that if she transferred money into his crypto-trading platform, she could get significant returns.
She thought it sounded "legit" and the man seemed "very genuine", so she transferred $400 into the platform.
Robert Irwin is one of several celebrities being used by scammers to con Aussies out of their hard-earned money. (Source: Channel 10/Facebook/Supplied)
"When I paid the money over to this account, it said it was based in Nigeria. I thought, 'Oh, my God, what have I done?'" she told Yahoo Finance.
"I quickly put a block on my debit card that I use, so no more could be taken from it.
"It's the first time I've ever been scammed for something like that, and hopefully it's the last."
Irwin and Albanese are just two of the faces that scammers have used in the past. Images of Sophie Monk, Karl Stefanovic, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, Gina Rinehart, and Anthony Pratt also been used due to their popularity or wealth.
That's a 25 per cent jump on the number of sites found last year.
The corporate watchdog said there was a spike in sites trying to con Aussies in July due to interest in the new financial year.
"These scam websites try to trick consumers into thinking they can make big returns and use unauthorised celebrity images to give credibility," ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said.
Scam adverts involving Sophie Monk and Robert Irwin have been lurking online and on social media. (Source: X/Facebook)
"Whenever you see a website, social media post or message offering an investment that claims to deliver outsized or guaranteed financial returns, always remember to stop, check and protect."
Investment scams are the leading cause of financial loss across the country with Aussies losing $945 million to the trick last year.
ASIC said scammers have been increasingly using AI to "rapidly expand at scale" their operations.
They've noticed a bunch of new fake trading platforms, cloned websites and professional-looking templates, fake news articles promoting fraudulent schemes, and "AI trading bot" products promising "unachievable" returns.
Calls for more scam protection
Riseley said social media giants like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, needed to do more to prevent these scam ads from being posted online in Australia.
This was echoed by iconic businessman Dick Smith, whose face has also been used to promote the scam ads.
“It’s one thing doing it with me and with Gina Rinehart... but it’s really completely under the board to use the Prime Minister," he said.
“Because we soon won’t know whether our Prime Minister is actually telling us something that’s the truth, or whether it’s a Facebook scam.”
While Meta couldn't comment on Riseley's case, a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance they were trying to crackdown on scams on the platform.
This is what Peter Riseley saw online, showing the scam ad claiming the Prime Minister had invested tens of millions of dollars into a new online platform. (Source: Supplied)
"Meta doesn’t want scams on its platforms and we continue to invest in teams and technology to detect and stop them," a spokesperson said.
"We are testing facial recognition technology to identify and stop celeb-bait scams and continue to collaborate with numerous industry partners, the government and law enforcement on this important issue.”
It has a team of about 40,000 people working on safety and security who are trying to proactively identify and block scams.
In just one quarter last year, the social media behemoth removed 1.2 billion fake accounts and 322 million pieces of spam content from Facebook. But some scams still slip through the cracks.
Meta was given a Shonky Award by CHOICE in November, which is a prize that recognised the "worst of the worst products and services from the past year".
The consumer group called out Meta after finding scams on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounted for 76 per cent of all reported social media scam losses.
“When CHOICE reported three suspicious Facebook ads as scams to Meta, one remained live for at least four days,” CHOICE chief executive Ashley de Silva said.
Meta declined to comment on the award but said it had invested more than $20 billion since 2016 to enhance safety and security.
The government introduced legislation last year that would slap fines of up to $50 million on social media platforms, banks and telco companies if they didn't take reasonable steps to prevent, detect, disrupt, respond and report scams.
