Romance scams are second to investment scams. Over the past 15 months, Americans have lost about $185 million in cryptocurrency due to the actions of pseudo-romantics.
According to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, between early 2021 and March 2022, about 46,000 Americans reported losing more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency due to fraud. Attackers managed to steal about 18% of this amount through romance scam schemes. The losses totaled $185 million in crypto.
Jonathan Merry, CEO of analytical firm Bankless Times, claims that victims of romantic crypto scams lose about $10,000 on average. The main techniques are simple: cause sympathy and offer to invest in a fraudulent project when the victim loses vigilance.
However, investment scams are still in the first place in the crypto scam rating. The FTC reports that over 57% of cryptocurrencies were committed as part of investment scams. Fraudsters take advantage of victims’ poor experience in crypto investing by offering to quickly earn large sums of money. The total amount of losses from such “investments” was $575 million in cryptocurrency.
According to recent data, the number of hacking attacks on crypto projects in Q2 2022 increased by 21% compared to Q1, and social media appeared to be the most vulnerable area of Web 3.0. About half of the fraudsters who stole digital assets used Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram.
CoinsPaid Media recommends reading the five most popular scam schemes in the cryptocurrency space in detail in order to protect your digital assets from scammers.
