On Monday, the FBI said that bitcoin frauds cost Americans over $5.6 billion in 2023. That accounts for just under half of US financial fraud losses last year and a frightening 45% rise in crypto scam losses from 2022.
approximately 71% of bitcoin frauds occurred as investment scams, costing approximately $4 billion. Criminals stole crypto via contact center frauds, government impersonation schemes, and dating sites.
“Over time, the victim is being cultivated, and the fraudsters are building confidence in the victim,” FBI deputy assistant director of criminal investigative division James Barnacle told ABC News. They're buddies. They met online or on social media. They met via messaging. The scammer will propose an investment opportunity when they become friends, saying, ‘Hey, I’m in a group that does investments or I know someone who does investments in cryptocurrency.’”
In a study, FBI Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall cites “the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, the speed of irreversible transactions, and the ability to transfer value around the world” as reasons fraudsters like it.
Nordwall believes the research will “bring attention to the proliferation of losses linked to cryptocurrency-related fraud, bolster awareness of the most prevalent schemes utilizing cryptocurrencies, and educate the public on the ways to protect themselves against these kinds of frauds.”
Interestingly, considering crypto is popular with Gen Z and millennials, over-60s were conned most. almost-60s wasted almost $1.6 billion on roughly 17,000 crypto-related complaints. For instance, 20-29-year-olds filed 6,200 complaints but lost just $168,585,320, still awful.
«Elderly have typically more spare time», Barnacle added. "They're at home in an assisted living facility, so they're simple to target because their availability is greater than someone who's not home all day. Fraudsters are great at creating rapport.”
California with almost $1.1 billion in damages was the most affected, followed by Texas, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.
To avoid becoming one of the many, the FBI advises researching suspicious calls, not giving out personal information to unknown parties, verifying email addresses from banks or governments, and being wary of get-rich-quick schemes. Report scams to the FBI at IC3.gov.
VICE News' Natashya Gutierrez discovered a burgeoning crypto fraud economy based on enslaved labor this year, obtaining rare access to human trafficking victims who stole billions from ordinary Americans.
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