According to the Better Business Bureau, scams involving cryptocurrency and other investments are currently the riskiest kind of fraud in the United States. These scammers often defraud their victims out of thousands of dollars.
Based on 67,000 allegations of scams, the BBB claimed in its annual report about the top scams of 2023 that con artists had developed inventive ways to defraud investors of their money.
According to the BBB, 80% of Americans who fell victim to cryptocurrency and investment scams last year lost money. “But many people lose much more than that” in cryptocurrency scams, according to national consumer investigative correspondent for CBS News Anna Werner, despite the fact that the typical amount lost was $3,800.
Hackers communicate with others via text messages, social media, and video game platforms, boasting about how successful their cryptocurrency investment has made them financially. Werner said that as soon as the targeted victim responds, the discussion immediately shifts to an inquiry.
According to Werner, this is the point at which scammers coerce you into buying, selling, or storing digital assets on shady exchanges, including bitcoin.
Federal officials, as well as consumer advocates, have long stated that cryptocurrency is an unregulated financial environment that is ripe for fraud. During the pandemic, the popularity of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed as interested investors poured money into tokens like ethereum, bitcoin, and solana. According to Forbes, the industry currently has a $2.65 trillion market capitalization.
Though many investors have found cryptocurrency to be profitable, there are hazards involved. Businesses that were formerly regarded as genuine have since collapsed; one such example is FTX, which was formerly among the largest cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. A $8 billion cash shortage and claims that former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had stolen client assets to support a faltering hedge fund contributed to FTX’s collapse in 2022.
Millions of dollars have been lost by cryptocurrency investors as a result of scams and hacks. This year, a 70-year-old Californian lost $720,000 in a cryptocurrency scam to a scammer. She then launched a lawsuit against Chase Bank.
The second riskiest scam, according to the BBB, is employment scams, which rounds out the list of the biggest financial hazards for 2023. At that point, a con artist gets in touch with the victim and pretends to be an employer, convincing them that they have been recruited and that they must fill out employee information.
The con artist is actually stealing someone’s private data. According to the BBB, victims of employment scams lost a median of $1,995 last year.
Scams involving online purchases were ranked third by the BBB. Usually, con artists use a fake website that victims visit in order to make a purchase, but they never receive the item. According to the BBB, victims of these scams lost, on average, $71 in the previous year.
