Shellharbour Mayor Chris Homer has had his Instagram account hacked and been targeted in a Bitcoin scam.
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On Monday, a gallery of photos purporting to show a $20,000 windfall in just three hours after investing $1000 was posted on Cr Homer's personal Instagram page along with an Instagram 'story' linking to the post.
"Go invest in bitcoin mining," the text of the post says.
"It's safe and legit."
But Cr Homer said he has never invested in Bitcoin nor does he have accounts with the Commonwealth Bank, the account to which the purported "profit" was deposited.
The posts link to an account that purports to be a Vancouver-based real estate agent and "investor", someone who Cr Homer said he had "never heard of".
Although Cr Homer was able to spot the scam straight away and alert his followers via the Facebook account he still controls, he said given his professional background as a mortgage broker it felt like a personal attack.
"I think [scammers] are leveraging these sorts of people with a trusted and qualified voice."
A growing number of Australians have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams, with many involving Bitcoin.
In 2021, consumer watchdog the ACCC warned about the growing popularity of scams involving cryptocurrency.
"More than half of the $70 million in losses were to cryptocurrency, especially through Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency scams were also the most commonly reported type of investment scam, with 2,240 reports," ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said.
While the number of reported investment scams has decreased in the years since, 2023 saw a 22 per cent yearly rise in the amount of money lost, with scammers fleecing nearly $300 million from unsuspecting Australians.
Assistant Treasurer and Whitlam MP Stephen Jones has been holding scam forums around the country and said what occurred to Cr Homer was typical.
"Everyone's had a personal experience, either they've received text messages, emails, seen stuff on their Facebook or Instagram."
Mr Jones said it was unacceptable that the most technological advanced corporations such as Google and Meta allowed scammer to use their platforms.
"They have algorithms that can determine whether you like a certain brand of sneaker, or type of food and advertise to you on that basis, surely they have the capacity to make their systems safer and block the scams."
A day later the post remains online, with Cr Homer saying he's frustrated at the delay it has taken for Instagram, owned by online behemoth Meta, to take down the scam post.
"You can't talk to a human, there's no return contact number, there's no direct emergency email, all you get is this pathway to follow that if you don't follow correctly, you go around in circles as well," he said.
"You feel quite disconnected from any kind of help from these big tech companies."
Now in the midst of updating his passwords for every site he does still have access to, Cr Homer said if an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is, and platforms such as Meta needed to provide more support as scams become nearly ubiquitous.
"You really feel like you're on your own."
