Crypto-related investment fraud to grow 53 percent by 2023: FBI

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), cryptocurrency-related investment fraud will be the largest investment loss in the United States by 2023.

In a recent report, the FBI reported that investment losses involving crypto in 2018 It will increase from USD 2.57 billion in 2022, to around USD 3.94 billion in 2023, representing an increase of 53%.

Meanwhile, the total amount lost from all investments by 2023 is $4.57 billion. This means that the $3.94 billion lost to crypto-related fraud accounts for 86 percent of all investment fraud in the country.

The FBI, meanwhile, emphasized that an increasing number of victims are being lured into crypto scams that promise high returns on their investments.

“These scams are designed to convince those who are promised lucrative returns on their investment.”

One of the most common crypto scams that people fall victim to is the romance scam. It's where a criminal adopts a fake online identity to gain the victim's love and trust before creating a story to convince the victim to send crypto, which he later disappears.

In the year In December 2023, Chinalysis reported that romance scams generated at least $374 million in suspected cryptocurrencies in 2023.

Related: 4 tips to protect your crypto from hackers in this bull market

Meanwhile, on January 1, Cointelegraph reported that more than 324,000 crypto users fell victim to phishing scams by 2023, with nearly $295 million worth of digital assets lost to wallet leaks.

However, the rise of citizens who are victims of crypto fraud is not only in the US, other countries around the world are also facing the same issue.

In April 2023, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported that Australians lost 221.3 million Australian dollars ($146.9 million) to investment fraud using crypto payment methods in 2022 – an increase of 162.4% from 2021.

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