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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has disclosed a concerning trend in cryptocurrency investment fraud, revealing a substantial increase in losses from $2.57 billion in 2022 to $3.94 billion in 2023, marking a significant 53% rise year-over-year.
Escalation in Scams
The FBI's Internet Crime Report 2023 highlights that criminals have employed various tactics to deceive victims, luring them with promises of significant investment returns.
This surge in fraudulent activity has led to an alarming rise in complaints received by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), surpassing 880,400 in 2023. These complaints collectively accounted for potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion, reflecting a 10% increase in complaints and a substantial 22% increase in losses compared to 2022.
Targeting Business Emails
According to Crypto Potato, the BEC scheme involved fraudulent requests for W-2 information and compromised vendor emails. In response, the FBI emphasized the importance of implementing multi-factor authentication to bolster security measures.
Based on a Coinnounce report, in 2023, more than 324,000 cryptocurrency users globally were ensnared by phishing scams, resulting in the loss of approximately $295 million in digital assets to wallet-draining schemes.
Meanwhile, the FBI thwarted certain scams through prompt intervention by the IC3's Recovery Asset Team (RAT). Leveraging the Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC) initiative, RAT intervened in 3,008 incidents with potential losses amounting to $758 million. Impressively, they froze $538.39 million, achieving a 71% success rate in preventing further financial losses.
Photo: Mika Baumeister/Unsplash
