The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that crypto scams victims have lost more than $1 billion in just a little over a year. Counting from January 2021 to March 2022, the body said that it had received crypto-related fraud complaints from nearly 46,000 different people.
According to a report titled “Reports show scammers cashing in on crypto craze,” the FTC said that the median loss of complaints it tallied was $2,600. Also, Bitcoin was the most common crypto currency that scammers made away it (accounting for 70%). Meanwhile, a close second was Tether (at 10%) and Ether (at 9%).
“From Super Bowl ads to Bitcoin ATMs, cryptocurrency seems to be everywhere lately. Although it’s yet to become a mainstream payment method, reports to the FTC show it’s an alarmingly common method for scammers to get peoples’ money,” the report’s intro reads.
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The commission further explained that scammers are attracted to crypto because of its several anonymity and escape routes. “There’s no bank or other centralized authority to flag suspicious transactions and attempt to stop fraud before it happens. Crypto transfers can’t be reversed – once the money’s gone, there’s no getting it back. And most people are still unfamiliar with how crypto works,” the Federal body further pointed out.
In addition, it is clear that crypto alone is not enough as scammers have found a way to combine it with the power of social media. Almost half of the reports that the FTC includes mention of a social media ad, post or message triggering the scheme.
2021 still has the highest scam value in the crypto industry with over $680 million reportedly lost by victims, an outrageous 420+% increase from the previous year, 2020. However, in just three months of 2022, a loss of $329 million has already been reported. Likely, this year will even surpass the previous one.
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