More than 46,000 people said they lost over $1 billion in cryptocurrency scams since the start of 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Cryptocurrencies accounted for one out of every four dollars reported lost, the highest in contrast to other payment methods, the FTC said in a report released Friday.
The average individual loss was $2,600, and the top digital tokens used to pay scammers included Bitcoin, Tether, and Ether, the FTC said.
Nearly 50% of the victims said they were misled by an ad, post, or on a social media platform post. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram all topped the list of social media sites reported as the source of the scams.
Most of the scams were investment-related fraud, with the FTC reporting $575 million in losses for bogus investment opportunities since 2021. Romance-related cons were the second most common type of scams.
The 2021 losses are roughly 60 times more than 2018’s scams. According to the same report, cryptocurrencies’ decentralized nature makes it hard to trace scams and recover lost money, making it a favorite for scammers.
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