Crypto Scams Explode: $5.6 Billion Lost in 2023 per FBI

[shield132]

I thought large-scale scams only happened in countries where people aren't as educated about crypto, but I was surprised to see this happening in a fully developed country. And we're not talking small amounts either....it's in the billions.

Some of the schemes that scammed victims include Investment Fraud (which makes up the largest percentage), and many victims were the elderly, likely because they're not as familiar with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. Scammers may find it easier to deceive them since they’re not as updated with technology. Another method used is the confidence scam, which is similar to romance scams. Scammers build trust and eventually convince victims to invest in crypto. According to the data, the most affected states are California, Florida, and Texas.

No, large-scale scams don't happen in poor countries, the reality is the opposite. Large-scale scams happen from poor countries. There are call centres in poor countries that pay abnormally high salaries to workers but it's an affiliate-based system, the more people you scam and the higher the scammed amount is, the higher your salary will be. Sadly, call centres are unregulated and there are rumours that government officials are protecting them behind the scenes but recently there was a big attack on call centres by German and US authorities and I'm happy many of them got closed.
Like you said, they are scamming old people, pensioners that live in America and European countries. They call them, tell them many lies and sadly, elders fall into the scam. They ask for their debit card numbers and many elder people have no idea that it's very dangerous to tell someone those numbers. They are lying that Netflix does this so there is no need to worry and blablabla.

[Cryptomultiplier]

With scams on the rise, do you think the current security measures are enough? Or what do you think needs to be improved to reduce scams?

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Crypto education needs to be done to anyone who is starting out, even old people. I think this complaint was caused by my own fault. Not purely from the exchange. Because the industry is growing fast and many people are taking advantage to commit fraud.
In the end, the knowledge factor in every user is absolute the best prevention. They need to manage emotional steps to stay alert and watch out for all potential scams.  They should be more thorough on everything related to assets. There will be more and more new fraud models. Because fraudsters will continue to try to take advantage of security loopholes to gain profits without having to work hard.

I thought one of the reasons why the FBI was calling for regulation of the cryptocurrency market and its exchanges, is due to the rising cases of scams and fraud that has made many lose millions.

I would like to think that the free world is more developed than many countries and if the FBI should have a data with such high rate of scammers within, I wonder the plight of those third world countries, who still use and understand cryptocurrency and do not have nearly up to the quota of security protocols of these big states in America alone.

More than just the younger generations, is the older generation like our old parents, older relations, older friends and older guardians who we know should be enlightened and re-enlightened on not only crypto currency market, but the economic and financial investment market happenings, in case they already made an investment that we do not know about and may have probably forgotten they had.

[Hazink]

This year, I think the rate at which people fall into crypto scams has reduced compared to the previous years.
 
Now all I see very common is a romance scam in which the scammer targets their victims, pretending to be someone else, to make them fall in love with them and build trust. Crypto currency is the only means used in sending the payment, but the scam itself is not a crypto scam.
 
If the rate at which those scams are going on is going to be reduced, there should be some kind of education to educate the people on how not to trust those they meet online, how to identify scammers, and means to avoid them, but with the way clone video apps are popular nowadays, it's even easier for scammers to convince their victims that they are who they claim to be. 

[Ultegra134]

No, large-scale scams don't happen in poor countries, the reality is the opposite. Large-scale scams happen from poor countries. There are call centres in poor countries that pay abnormally high salaries to workers but it's an affiliate-based system, the more people you scam and the higher the scammed amount is, the higher your salary will be. Sadly, call centres are unregulated and there are rumours that government officials are protecting them behind the scenes but recently there was a big attack on call centres by German and US authorities and I'm happy many of them got closed.
Like you said, they are scamming old people, pensioners that live in America and European countries. They call them, tell them many lies and sadly, elders fall into the scam. They ask for their debit card numbers and many elder people have no idea that it's very dangerous to tell someone those numbers. They are lying that Netflix does this so there is no need to worry and blablabla.

That's the sad reality: most scams emigrate from third-world countries such as Nigeria or India, the well-known to everyone call centers that disguising themselves as Microsoft support that either extract money by scamming them with fake "security" services or just straight up wipe their bank accounts. You'll also see them identify as IRS and even use spoof numbers to appear they're calling from a US number. There's even a few Youtube channels chasing them down, one of which is Pleasant Green.

However, this has little to do with cryptocurrencies. Investment fraud, which the OP mentioned accounting for the majority of scams, also existed with fake stock market brokers a few years ago. Such scams always existed; it just became easier for them because cryptocurrencies are extremely mainstream and well-known nowadays; thus, people are easily fooled.

[freedomgo]

This year, I think the rate at which people fall into crypto scams has reduced compared to the previous years.

The year isn’t over yet, so we can’t say for sure. It usually depends on market sentiment.....like when things are bullish, people get more eager to invest, and that’s when scammers (like those running these kinds of scams) take advantage.

Now all I see very common is a romance scam in which the scammer targets their victims, pretending to be someone else, to make them fall in love with them and build trust. Crypto currency is the only means used in sending the payment, but the scam itself is not a crypto scam.

Unfortunately, they label it a "crypto scam" whenever it involves crypto. Here in my area, a lot of people got scammed by HYIP schemes that used Bitcoin, but they end up saying Bitcoin itself is the scam. Bitcoin gets dragged into it because of the scammers, but if people did their due diligence before investing, they probably wouldn’t have been scammed.

[Russlenat]

Unfortunately, they label it a "crypto scam" whenever it involves crypto.

The term "crypto scam" has a broad meaning (it covers all scams involving crypto), while "scam crypto projects" is more specific. The latter focuses on fraudulent projects within the crypto space.

Here in my area, a lot of people got scammed by HYIP schemes that used Bitcoin, but they end up saying Bitcoin itself is the scam. Bitcoin gets dragged into it because of the scammers, but if people did their due diligence before investing, they probably wouldn’t have been scammed.

That’s the trend, most scammers take advantage of Bitcoin’s popularity. The fact that so many get scammed only means one thing; Bitcoin has a good reputation because people believe that if they invest, they’ll get a good return. But because they get too confident, they forget to do their research before investing.

[Argoo]

That’s the trend, most scammers take advantage of Bitcoin’s popularity. The fact that so many get scammed only means one thing; Bitcoin has a good reputation because people believe that if they invest, they’ll get a good return. But because they get too confident, they forget to do their research before investing.

The growth of cryptocurrency fraud is not surprising and most likely natural. Fraudsters are attracted here not only by the concentration of large sums of money, but also by relative anonymity, the ability to commit fraud from anywhere on our planet and great difficulty for law enforcement agencies if such frauds cover the territory of several countries at the same time.

The growing popularity of cryptocurrency leads to the fact that many people who are very poorly versed in it and can be easily deceived enter this market. Fraudsters take advantage of this. In addition, states, as a rule, have not yet adopted the necessary regulations to regulate the circulation of cryptocurrency and this occurs in a semi-legal form, which makes it very difficult to protect victims from fraudulent activities.

The given figures for damage from fraudulent activities in the amount of 5.6 billion dollars, this is, apparently, only in the United States, and in total this figure is immeasurably greater. In the meantime, it will only continue to grow.