The United States (U.S.) Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) 2022 Internet Crime report records a 183% year-over-year (YoY) rise in cryptocurrency frauds in the U.S. Per the FBI’s report, in the U.S, the cryptocurrency investment frauds have reached a record high of $2.57 billion in 2022, against $907 million in 2021.
In 2022, the total losses approximately account for 25% of all money lost to online scams and fraud. In essence this means 90% of the $3.31 billion have fallen prey to online investment fraud. Reportedly, Americans ended up losing to the tune of $10.3 billion to online scams in 2022, against $6.9 billion in 2021.
The FBI prepared its report in question by conducting a thorough collation and analysis of the online scams’ data in 2000 via its internet crime complaint center (IC3). The FBI states the loss to the tune of $10.3 billion in 2022 is the peak of the amount stolen by online scammers and fraudsters ever. Frauds related to cryptocurrency have also skyrocketed in 2022, wherein the descriptor “cryptocurrency wallet” is trending to be associated with a majority of the complaints.
The report by the FBI notes, Crypto-investment scams saw unprecedented increases in the number of victims and the dollar losses to these investors.
Per the FBI, the scammers tend to offer their victims fraudulent liquidity mining platforms’ access. They do so to finally get the victims connect their cryptocurrency wallets to the scammy platforms.
Once the innocent victims connect their wallets to such fraudulent platforms, the scammers steal all the funds instantaneously. Scammers also go on to hack social media profiles of users to offer scammy investment offers to the victims’ contacts. Alternatively, the fraudsters also resort to using fake celebrity profiles to promote scammy investment schemes.
To initiate cryptocurrency investment frauds, scammers are also resorting to using fake real estate investment schemes and fake jobs for stealing cryptocurrency. A majority of online investment fraud victims belong to the age group of 30 to 49-year old. Only 30% of the victims were reported to be over 60 and above, per the report.
