So, here's the deal: Americans got hit for $9.3 billion due to crypto scams in 2024. That's a whopping 66% increase compared to 2023, where losses were around $5.6 billion.
All internet-related crimes in 2024 racked up over $16.6 billion in losses, which is a new all-time high!
A very well detailed report.
Yes, crypto fraud will increase. In countries where these crime is not documented the incidence will even be more than this.
Crypto fraud is here to stay because some people have taken it up as they career path.
For us not to fall victims and become a statistics, we cannot put the knowledge of protection of our crypto in the hands of a company and person.
Please share if you have the report for other countries. Thank you.
@Alphakilo. However, this does not imply that the cryptospace is full of fraud. This implies that the usage and the users in the cryptospace are increasing very quickly and this causes the criminals to transfer much of their activities in the cryptospace. This is only similar to the growth of the internet beginning in the year 2000 where criminality has grown and where the mainstream media and government fud was used to cause everyone to be afraid hehehee. Are you afraid?
In a global economy of at least $60Tr a year, those figures are very tiny.
This unfortunately does mean crypto is good for moving assets because of it's decentralised and permission free/immutable nature and that's always a tradeoff. I'm guessing the crypto is part of a procurement process for something that's easy to move and transfer (like is done with gift cards but I assume that has its limits).
Crypto set an ath and became sensationalised more again in 2024 so it's unsurprising more frauds about investing in it or that panicked people into paying with it came about.
@coinhelper. It might be very tiny, however, this is not what is being implied in the statement. What is being implied is the growth of the fraud, which we are for certain will only increase when the cryptospace gets more adopted.
This is the correct assessment by the FBI, however, how the government and mainstream news media will make is interpret the data will be for their purpose of fud and judgement manipulation.
I understand that they need to keep tabs of all these but why do they have to make crypto currency look like the bad guy? So there haven't been fiat related fraud? I think if you want to make comparison on what is bringing down the economy, the number of times fiat has been used to transact illegal services should also be brought up.
Personally I don't just see this as a means to keep tabs but a way to show the public and people who are considering investing in crypto that it is bad and they should change their minds.
I believe the lion's share of cryptocurrency fraud is due to ransomware, which typically demands payments in Bitcoin and Monero.
$16 billion is not a small amount, especially considering the losses in a single year. Yet, efforts are moving in the opposite direction.
+The largest number of complaints came from those over 60 years old.
I've seen this kind of report before, and it seems the trend is increasing, even though crypto is becoming more popular. It stems from different kinds of scams, like love scams, Ponzi schemes, and many others. Scammers are constantly being innovative, which is why they seem to be winning every year. I don't know if this trend will stop or at least reduce in the coming years, but it seems like scammers know their target, and they often focus on the elderly.
Not all crypto is decentralized and permissionless, you are talking about BTC when you name these features, there are a lot of centralized cryptocurrencies, ones that their issuers can even confiscate funds when it is held in your own wallet, like usdt.
Scammers use a lot of tools to scam people, not only crypto, i know a lot of people like to isolate statistics like this to talk bad about BTC and crypto, but they are simply anti-crypto. BTC isn't even a suitable tool to move stolen funds, because of its public ledger, but many people tend to forget that fact.
Yes I did forget about USDC and USDT confiscations. As two of the largest cryptocurrencies they show an example of how a centralised entity can acquire a lot of power in decentralised spaces and no other stablecoin is keeping up with their valuation.
Tether is still a tenth of the valuation of bitcoin though so the PoC still favours decentralised, immutable and permissionless. Since there's so much centralised power on usdt and usdc, it might be interesting to see what happens when something goes wrong and someone acts malicious (like what happened with Terra (USD) but only time will tell on that one).
That's a valid point... A lot of people are fixated on the idea of increasing the adoption and these stats perfectly show the detrimental effect of introducing this field to newcomers without properly teaching them the basics, while also giving them the wrong idea that nothing can go wrong [in other words, it's attracting the wrong type of users (unfortunately)]!
But I see this news from a different angle.
The whole world is "loudly shouting" that crypto is used for criminal purposes and it should be banned in order to deprive criminals of the opportunity to commit crimes using it. But the opposite situation is happening. Judging by these statistics, crypto is a "victim" of crimes, because it is stolen, and not used as a tool for crime. If we follow the logic of the authorities, voicing the rhetoric that crypto is a tool for crimes, seeing these huge numbers of stolen crypto, then it needs to be protected. Trivially, issue laws aimed at this. But as it usually turns out, the laws are directed against the interests of citizens (use of crypto, instead of satisfying the interests of citizens (assistance in returning lost / stolen crypto).
By the way, regarding Trump's law on the national reserve of bitcoin, consisting of confiscated crypto assets. Will the US return these $9,300,000,000 (Crypto Fraud in 2024) if these crimes are revealed during confiscation to the original owners (victims)? Or will it take it for itself to increase the national reserve bitcoin?
But aren't these amounts of stolen dollars growing because the crypto rate is growing? That is, following the trend, these amounts will be larger every year. I also assume that this is due to the involvement of new investors in crypto industry.
I remember an old children's cartoon, in which the treasurer said: "All the coins that ended up in the treasury now belong to the treasurer"
The return procedure is very complicated, which requires a lot of documents, legal services and in most cases costs more than the lost funds. And these procedures last so long that everyone already forgets about them. An example is the MT.GOX exchange, the case has been going on for a very long time.
These bitcoins in the bitcoin strategic reserve are coins that were confiscated and the intention by the US marshals is to put them on action similar to what they have done before. Do you not remember Tim Draper was always the winner of these actions before? These bitcoins will never be returned even if they were not placed in the reserve.
I reckon the FBI might begin to be very much more aggressive to catch criminals in the cryptospace to grow the government's bitcoin reserve heheheh.
Here's another article from another American intelligence agency.
https://www.ibtimes.com/cia-deputy-director-hints-agency-uses-bitcoin-crypto-tools-against-china-other-adversaries-3772236
CIA Deputy Director Hints Agency Uses Bitcoin, Crypto As 'Tools' Against China, Other Adversaries
KEY POINTS
Ellis said the CIA has collaborated with law enforcement to try to track illicit crypto payments
He also said Bitcoin and crypto have become 'another area of technological competition between the US and China
He added that Bitcoin and other crypto are 'another tool in the toolbox' of the CIA
As far as I understand, each special service has its own service for tracking cryptocurrency transactions.
There is cryptocurrency fraud e.g Someone creates a fake coin, make people buy and crashes the coin or newbies making cryptocurrency investments in the hands of scammers. There is also fraud not related to crypto, only that crypto was used as a means of payment.The second option shouldn't be considered as crypto fraud. I was a victim of this type of fraud. I was frauded for fake Forex trading but I made the payment with bitcoin. So, the clarity should be there.
You are reading such news incorrectly. The purpose of such news and reports is not to provide data.
This is another way to knock out more budget for the fight against crime, and in order to get this budget, special services must have arguments like these