The Australian Federal Police has warned of scammers posing as AFP officers and other law enforcement representatives.
“Scammers are pretending they work for the AFP and other law-enforcement agencies to deceive victims into sending them funds from their cryptocurrency accounts, or to share seed phrases – a list of random words used to help recover your account,” the AFP said in a 4 February alert notice.
“It all starts when the scammers submit a false ReportCyber report using victims’ personal information. They then call the victim to advise they have been identified in a data breach – representing themselves as AFP or other police working under Operation Firestorm (a legitimate AFP operation). They then proceed to deceive the victims into transferring cryptocurrency to secure the account.”
With so many Australians being involved in data breaches in recent years – millions have been compromised by incidents, ranging from the Optus breach to more recent events such as 2025’s Genea ransomware incident – it’s a clever scam.
However, there are signs to watch for, which the AFP outlined:
- The scammer acts quickly with a phone call and email.
- They say they are a detective chief inspector with the AFP’s cyber crime unit, an AFP officer working under Operation Firestorm, or even a specific individual: Detective Sergeant Tim Howard.
- The scammer may also claim to represent other police agencies.
- They may try to propose a video call from what appears to be an “AFP office” or “police station” to make it look legitimate, but law enforcement representatives will never make such a video call.
In response, the AFP is urging people not to engage with scammers or transfer any funds upon what appears to be an AFP request. In addition, if targeted by such a scam, individuals should notify their Digital Currency Exchange of any suspicious activity and file a report at ReportCyber, including the false “ReportCyber” CIRS number provided by the scammer.
“ReportCyber have implemented a one-time password (OTP) function to stop scammers from lodging and validating false reports via victims’ emails,” the AFP said.
“Never provide this OTP to anyone.”
David Hollingworth
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.