Private investors lost over $1 billion in crypto scams since 2021
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has presented its report on how much investors’ money has been carried away by the creators of cryptocurrency scam projects in less than two years.
As you can already understand from the article’s title, this amount is close to one billion dollars. More than 46,000 people reported losing their funds because of fraudulent activities in the cryptocurrency sphere. Most likely, not all 100% of the victims were ready to be deanonymized within investigations, so the actual number is probably higher.
Based on the FTC data, the “average check” for modern crypto scammers is $2600. In 70% of cases, the stolen assets were bitcoins, in 10% - USDT, in 9% - Ethereum.
Only in the first quarter of the current 2022, in some dishonest way, criminals received almost 30 times more than in 2018, and already more than 50% from figures of 2021. Perhaps the bear market will moderate the appetites of scammers and investors, but the chances of breaking the record seem high.
Among the main catalysts for such activity, according to the commission, are the features of cryptocurrencies: trending popularity, irreversibility of transactions, low awareness of people, as well as the inability to stop a fraudulent operation at the time of its implementation.
Almost a third of all scams in 2021 ($185 million) are so-called “romance scams,” when influencers or bloggers, streaming their luxury lifestyle, offer simple enrichment schemes. At the same time, clients reported that the actual “product” they received was only detailed instructions with the technical nuances of sending funds to a specific crypto wallet.
“Ponzi schemes” (pyramid schemes), phishing sites, fake support services for exchanges, and scams imitating government agencies or banks also flourish. Online dating is also dangerous when one of the flirting participants purposefully brings communication to work in financial markets and investments.
Notably, the amounts collected by scammers increase depending on the victim’s age. On average, crypto users over 70 years lost more than $11,700 each.
Once again, we remind you that the main sign of a possible scam is the promise of quick and easy money. Be prudent and thirsty for knowledge!
