According to the FBI’s report, $5.6 billion was lost due to cryptocurrency scams in 2023, with significant financial losses affecting investors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that losses from cryptocurrency scams reached a record high in 2023. As reported by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, crypto scammers defrauded investors out of $5.6 billion, marking a 45% increase compared to 2022. The report indicates that investment fraud is now the most prevalent and costly form of crypto-related crime.
Last year, the FBI received over 69,000 reports of crypto-related crimes, with nearly half of them involving investment scams. These scams generated over $4 billion in earnings for the fraudsters. While cryptocurrency scams accounted for only 10% of all complaints received by the FBI, they caused nearly half of the total financial losses.
Older investors targeted in crypto scams
The report highlights that the most common type of fraud is long-term investment scams, known as “pig butchering.” In this type of scam, fraudsters build relationships with their victims over an extended period, convincing them to invest large sums of money into fake crypto platforms, from which withdrawals are impossible. Victims aged 60 and older were particularly affected, suffering losses exceeding $1.24 billion.
U.S. investors were the hardest hit by these crypto scams, with California standing out as the state with the most complaints and the highest financial losses.
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