$2.5 Billion Stolen From US Victims Through Crypto Investment Scams in 2022: FBI Report

$2.5 Billion Stolen From US Victims Through Crypto Investment Scams in 2022: FBI Report

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that Americans parted ways with over $10 billion in online fraud last year.

Malefactors withdrew $2.57 billion of this amount through cryptocurrency investment programs.

Crypto scams on the rise

Despite a predominantly bearish year for the cryptocurrency industry, 2022 has been fruitful for criminals. SheSteelnearly $2.6 billion from American consumers using investment plans related to Bitcoin and other digital assets. In contrast, such a scam resulted in “only” $907 million in 2021.

"Crypto investment scams resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of victims and dollar losses for these investors. Many victims took on massive debt to cover losses from these fraudulent investments," the FBI report said.

The agency said the group most targeted is people aged 30 to 49. Previous studies have shown that such individuals are quite active in the crypto space, while older investors have not yet embraced the asset class.

The FBI outlined the most common methods crypto scammers use to attack victims. They often trick people into linking their wallets to a fraudulent liquidity mining application, thereby stealing their funds or hacking their social media accounts.

Celebrity impersonation is also a popular method: Malefactors stream a video of a dubious investment plan and post the face of a well-known person to make their project appear legitimate. Needless to say, the celebrities did not give their permission to appear in the ad, while victims who join the scam often lose their money.

As a result, crypto fraudsters sometimes pose as real estate professionals or employers at a company that offers investment advice. However, instead of providing valuable clues, they try to steal as much as possible from the targets.

Romance Crypto Fraud also became very popular

A study by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).revealedthat such scams affected thousands of Americans between January 2021 and March 2022, resulting in them being deprived of $185 million.

Malefactors often seek out lonely people by pretending to be in love with them. Once they gain her trust, they pressure her to invest in a mysterious cryptocurrency project, lying that the significant profits could fund a potential wedding or romantic vacation.

"Victims of romance scams learn the hard way that the heart is not so smart. Their search for love makes them easy prey for conniving individuals who con them out of their money. They pull off an elaborate scam that will leave their victims swooning, and by the time the victim realizes it, they will be thousands of dollars poor," Bankless Times explained.

This type of scam seems to be quite popular in the UK. A Briton whose name has not been revealedlostBitcoin worth $200,000 last year after chatting online with a woman named Jia. The latter advised him to allocate the assets to a suspicious app and assured that the proceeds would be great. Shortly afterwards, the man discovered that his credit was “balanced” while the woman stopped contact with him.

A British pensioner living in Nottinghamshireseparatedwith $207,000 this year after falling victim to a similar scam. She fell in love with a person who introduced himself as a US Army surgeon and asked her to transfer money to a specific Bitcoin wallet. Her bank and local police recovered more than half of the sum.

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