The scamming saga in the cryptocurrency market does not seem to find any proper defenses or solutions, at least for now. While the extreme sensitivity of crypto itself was not enough to keep investors on edge, the fear of being exposed to fraudsters and losing hard-earned money has been a problem. A new analysis shows that investors lost over $1 billion in cryptocurrencies due to fraud from January 2021 to March 2022.
New analysis from the Federal Trade Commission suggests fraud cryptocurrency Quickly becoming the payment of choice for many scammers, almost one out of every four dollars paid in cryptocurrencies is reported to be lost due to fraud.
According to the analysis, consumers reported losing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency-related fraud from January 2021 to March 2022.
The FTC’s findings showed that the majority of cryptocurrency losses reported by consumers were related to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment opportunities – a loss of $575 million since January last year.
Fake cryptocurrency investment opportunities often arise due to false promises made to potential investors. Scammers falsely promise investors that they make huge returns by investing in their cryptocurrency schemes, however, people have reported that they lose all the money they “invest”.
Furthermore, the next biggest loss reported by consumers was on romance scams, which often involve a love interest trying to entice someone to invest in a cryptocurrency scam.
In addition, consumers have suffered significantly in business and government impersonation scams, with the FTC report stating that these scammers often target consumers by claiming that their money is at risk due to fraud or government investigations and that their The only way to protect cash is to convert. This is for cryptocurrency.
According to the FTC, cryptocurrency-related scams often start on social media. Nearly half of consumers reporting a cryptocurrency-related scam since 2021 said it began with an advertisement, post or message on the social media platform.
It said consumers in the age group of 20 to 49 were more than three times as likely as older age groups to have reported losing money in a cryptocurrency scam. However, older age groups reported losing more money when they reported cryptocurrency-related scams.
The FTC guides consumers to keep an eye out for the following red flags:
– Anyone who claims that they can guarantee a profit or a large return by investing in a cryptocurrency;
– People that require you to buy or pay in cryptocurrency; And
– A love interest who wants to show you how to invest in cryptocurrency or send them cryptocurrency.