In its recently published report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned about a massive 45% year-over-year jump in crypto scam losses.  

Overall, Americans suffered a staggering $5.6 billion worth of losses related to digital currency fraud last year, according to the FBI. 

Notably, crypto losses accounted for half of all losses that were recorded last year. 

The FBI had to deal with a whopping 69,000 crypto-related fraud complaints this year. The number of complaints has skyrocketed over the past few years. For comparison, they were almost nonexistent back in 2017 despite the fact that crypto had already broken into the mainstream. Of course, the biggest number of them came from people who are older than 60. 

California, Florida, and Texas are in the lead when it comes to the states with the biggest number of crypto scam complaints. 

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, one of the divisions of the FBI that specifically deals with criminal activities on the Internet, has encountered various types of fraudulent schemes that involve crypto. 

Unsurprisingly, digital assets are the most popular option for investment scams. Some other popular categories include tech support, personal data breaching, extortion, romance scams, phishing, and employment. SIM-swapping schemes come in last place with only 300 complaints.

According to the FBI, its recent report is meant to spotlight massive crypto scam losses. 

Potential victims have been advised to avoid too-good-to-be-true investment opportunities, sketchy-looking applications as well as websites that might impersonate legitimate crypto companies.  

About the author

Alex Dovbnya

Alex Dovbnya (aka AlexMorris) is a cryptocurrency expert, trader and journalist with extensive experience of covering everything related to the burgeoning industry — from price analysis to Blockchain disruption. Alex authored more than 1,000 stories for U.Today, CryptoComes and other fintech media outlets. He’s particularly interested in regulatory trends around the globe that are shaping the future of digital assets, can be contacted at [email protected].

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