Crypto scam victims have lost more than $1 bn since 2021: US FTC report

More than 46,000 people reported losing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency scams since the start of 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a report on Friday.

Nearly half the people who reported losing digital currencies in a scam said it started with an ad, post or a message on a platform, according to the FTC. The craze for cryptocurrencies was at a fever pitch last year with bitcoin hitting a record high of $69,000 in November.

Reports point to social media and crypto as a combustible combination for fraud, the agency said, adding that about $575 million of all losses related to digital currency frauds were about “bogus investment opportunities”.

Nearly four out of every ten dollars lost in a fraud originating on social media was lost in crypto, far more than any other payment method, with Instagram, , WhatsApp and Telegram being the top social media platforms in such cases, according to the report.

The average reported loss for an individual was $2,600 and bitcoin, tether and ether were

the top cryptocurrencies that people used to pay scammers, the FTC said.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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