In just 15 months January 2021 to March 2022, people in the U.S. reportedly lost crypto worth over $185 million via romance scams. This comes amidst fraudsters using new means to rob their victims, with romance scams featuring prominently.
Since early 2021, nearly 46,000 Americans had reported losing over $1 billion in crypto to scams, according to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report.
On average, victims of romance crypto scams lose about $10,000.
After hooking the victim upon gaining their trust, the fraudsters reportedly "offer advice" on how to invest in crypto.
Younger people are reportedly more susceptible to crypto scams. FTC report's statistics reportedly showed that people aged 20 to 49 were more than?three times?as likely as older age groups to have reported losing cryptocurrency to a scammer.?
Reports point to people in their 30s as the hardest hit ¨C 35% of their reported fraud losses since 2021 were in cryptocurrency.?But median individual reported losses have tended to increase with age, topping out at $11,708 for people in their 70s.
For the uninitiated, in crypto?romance scams, fraudsters usually first gain the trust of the target person through romantic talks on dating apps or other social media. And then begin to offer them crypto 'advice' to invest their money. There can be involvement of fraudulent or fake websites, crypto wallets and even fake/fraudulent person who is the scammer.?And then suddenly the fraudsters tend to disappear with the target victim's money.
The victims are often too late in realizing that all of it was a crypto romance scam, and are then left to find ways to get back their 'invested' money.?
Romance scams aren't the only ones that Americans fall for.?
There are others, and the FTC reported that the most common type of crypto fraud was investment scams. Since 2021, the commission has received complaints of losses totalling $575M due to this kind of con. And the narratives follow the same script: the promise of making quick money coupled with the victim¡¯s poor grasp and experience of cryptos.
Investment scammers paint investors a picture of huge returns quickly, only for them to divert the fund to their wallets. Others set up fake sites and apps that supposedly enable investors to track their crypto portfolios. They even enable ¡°test withdrawals¡± to persuade them that their products are legit and their investments are safe. But should they fall for that ploy, they find it difficult to withdraw their cash.
Business and government impersonation scams are the other forms. These accounted for losses of $133 million in Q1 2022. These involve the fraudster impersonating someone in authority and then gaining the victim's credentials.
Also Read:?MonkeyPoxInu Scam: Developers Allegedly Run Away With $400 Million In Just 3 Days
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