More than 46,000 investors in the cryptocurrency market lost over $1 billion due to scams. About it writes Reuters with reference to the report of the Federal Trade Commission.
Scam (from English scam) is a scam, fraud, deceit. This term became widespread with the development of cryptocurrency projects (an article about this phenomenon on iXBT.live)
The regulator’s report notes that over the specified period, cryptocurrency fraud accounted for about a quarter of the total volume of financial schemes. About 50% of the victims learned about the “best offer” through advertising, posts and messages on social networks. The most common were Instagram with 32% and Facebook (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) with 26%.
Americans who tried to “invest” in digital assets lost the most money - the total amount of their losses was $575 million.
“These fraudulent schemes usually promise potential investors huge profits from investing in cryptocurrencies, but in the end, “investors” lose all their funds,” FTC analysts write.
In second place in terms of popularity of the means of deception used were frauds from the field of "amorous affairs". That is, American residents tried to get acquainted in online dating services, but as a result, scammers swindled their funds using payments in cryptocurrencies.
The analysts also calculated that the average recorded loss for each investor was $2,600. The main cryptocurrencies used by the scammers were Bitcoin, USDT and Ethereum.
Interestingly, it is also worth noting that users aged 20 to 49 are three times more likely to report losing money due to crypto scams than those in older age groups. However, the average individual loss tended to increase with age, reaching $11,708 for people in their 70s.
bbabo.Net