According to Australia’s federal police, law enforcement will need to “continually change” to keep up with criminals.
Federal law enforcement in Australia has cited cryptocurrency crime as a “growing threat” to the nation, although they acknowledge that keeping up with criminals is a constant issue.
According to an AFP official, there has been a “rise in the number of offenders using cryptocurrency to facilitate illicit activity and trying to conceal the ownership of assets,” noting:
“The use of cryptocurrencies for illegal purposes is a growing concern to law enforcement.”
Nevertheless, they acknowledged that the largest difficulty for law enforcement is to “continually improve” their “tools, strategies, and legal frameworks” in order to keep up with criminals, particularly as popular acceptance of cryptocurrencies rises.
The AFP created a new cryptocurrency branch last month with the goal of keeping track of transactions using cryptocurrencies.
The spokeswoman did add, however, that criminals “continue to find methods to dodge law enforcement and exploit the public” despite the earlier creation of crypto-focused teams.
Misplaced attention
Online investment fraud, according to one Australian private detective, is the “prolific and profitable” crypto crime that the AFP has not yet prioritised.
Ken Gamble, executive chairman of IFW Global, claims that rather than large-scale online investment fraud, the AFP has recently concentrated mostly on cryptocurrency money laundering related to drug trafficking, hacking, ransomware, and email breach.
Australians have already lost 242.5 million Australian dollars ($152.6 million) to scammers in 2022, according to Scamwatch data collected between January and July of this year. The majority of the money was lost to investment scams, such as romance baiting scams, traditional Ponzi schemes, and cryptocurrency scams.
The amount is already 36% more than it was for the entire year of 2021.
The investigator further stated that law enforcement agencies need greater training and instruction on how cryptocurrency works and that certain law enforcement departments are still not completely qualified to handle crypto crime cases.
According to a research released in July by the analytics company Chainalysis, 74% of public agencies felt ill-prepared to look into crimes involving cryptocurrencies. Respondents also noted that many agencies did not use specific blockchain analysis tools.
The criminal sector is becoming increasingly involved in the shortage of skilled and licenced bitcoin tracers, according to Gamble.
This may soon change as a number of foreign and domestic agencies have announced the establishment of sections focusing on crypto-crime this year.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has also recently established a specialised squad in Singapore to assist the authorities in tackling crimes involving virtual assets.
Law enforcement agencies need more training in cryptocurrency, according to Interpol Secretary Jürgen Stock, who made the statement at Interpol’s general assembly in India. He claimed that because agencies are not properly trained and properly equipped from the beginning, using cryptocurrency poses a challenge.
