An FBI report, covering the year 2023, highlights numerous frauds against cryptocurrency investors.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, universally known as the FBI, recently released an interesting report on online fraud related to cryptocurrencies. The report is a compilation of data from complaints dating back to the year 2023, the latest for which we have complete data available.
The document released by the federal force states that, during that period, American investors lost $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency-related scams. The increase in these crimes, compared to the previous year, is concrete: that is 45 per cent more crimes.
Data from Complaints
The number of complaints received by the agency over the 12-month period covered by the report was 69,000. This is a number that corresponds to 10% of the total number of reports that the bureau was involved in. As is well known, not all crime in the States is a federal matter. Many are in fact handled by state police forces.
The most frequent victims were elderly people over 60, who lost 1.6 billion of the total. Contrary to what one might think, only one in ten complaints were related to telephone scams, in which the perpetrator impersonated the government or hid behind unscrupulous call centres. More than 70 per cent of these reports were in fact related to investment schemes.
Frauds Leverage Misconfidence
The complaints received by the investigative agency came from more than 200 countries. In percentage terms, it is noted that the vast majority of victims of these frauds live and reside in the United States.
The main mechanism used is deception based on trust. The fraudster is good at gaining trust by pretending to be kind, sensitive and understanding, but does so with malicious intent in order to steal money. The FBI emphasised this point several times in the document they produced, highlighting an aspect that is always good to keep in mind:
"There is one thing these scammers generally do not do: they will never meet you in real life. If an investment opportunity is proposed by someone you've never met in person, be extremely cautious, using more care than you normally would when approaching any potential investment."
It's Spelled Pig Butchering and it's Read Fraud
These frauds have a specific name: they are referred to as pig butchering operations.
The image of the pig at the slaughterhouse is due to the fact that the fraudster proposes apparently legitimate and potentially profitable investments, even in short periods. In order to convince the victim, they usually present her with a precisely elaborated but usually fake investment portfolio.
In this way, they grease the investor with lavish promises, before sending him/her to the slaughterhouse to siphon off the capital. Exactly as pig farmers do, who first let their animals feed and then kill them, in order to turn them into delicacies to be enjoyed.
Beautiful Exploitation Often Hides Behind the Scams
Not infrequently, workers are forced to carry out phone scams by virtue of real blackmail by the employer, if we want to call these wicked exploiters that. In exchange for pittance wages, entrepreneurs of this level often seize the documents of their employees, trapping them, and may even go so far as to demand their board and lodging expenses back. They are true corporals of crime.
The Most Widespread Frauds
The most widespread frauds are not only telephone frauds. Also very popular are those dubbed play-to-earn. They consist in asking the user to purchase a token, perhaps for an online game promising high winnings, in order to be able to freeze his wallet immediately afterwards and demand a ransom. The situation is aggravated by the fact that not infrequently, even agencies specialised in crypto debt collection are run by fraudsters.
You should also be careful when withdrawing money. Often, in fact, the kiosks are infected with sophisticated viruses or are improperly implanted, without the knowledge of the owner of the exposed brand, which is only used to fool the user into believing that he is using a legitimate counter, when this is not the case at all.
As James Barnacle, deputy director of the FBI's Criminal Investigation Division, has pointed out, the chances of recovering money from cryptocurrency kiosks are pretty slim.
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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, universally known as the FBI, recently released an interesting report on online fraud related to cryptocurrencies. The report is a compilation of data from complaints dating back to the year 2023, the latest for which we have complete data available.
The document released by the federal force states that, during that period, American investors lost $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency-related scams. The increase in these crimes, compared to the previous year, is concrete: that is 45 per cent more crimes.
Data from Complaints
The number of complaints received by the agency over the 12-month period covered by the report was 69,000. This is a number that corresponds to 10% of the total number of reports that the bureau was involved in. As is well known, not all crime in the States is a federal matter. Many are in fact handled by state police forces.
The most frequent victims were elderly people over 60, who lost 1.6 billion of the total. Contrary to what one might think, only one in ten complaints were related to telephone scams, in which the perpetrator impersonated the government or hid behind unscrupulous call centres. More than 70 per cent of these reports were in fact related to investment schemes.
Frauds Leverage Misconfidence
The complaints received by the investigative agency came from more than 200 countries. In percentage terms, it is noted that the vast majority of victims of these frauds live and reside in the United States.
The main mechanism used is deception based on trust. The fraudster is good at gaining trust by pretending to be kind, sensitive and understanding, but does so with malicious intent in order to steal money. The FBI emphasised this point several times in the document they produced, highlighting an aspect that is always good to keep in mind:
It's Spelled Pig Butchering and it's Read Fraud
These frauds have a specific name: they are referred to as pig butchering operations.
The image of the pig at the slaughterhouse is due to the fact that the fraudster proposes apparently legitimate and potentially profitable investments, even in short periods. In order to convince the victim, they usually present her with a precisely elaborated but usually fake investment portfolio.
In this way, they grease the investor with lavish promises, before sending him/her to the slaughterhouse to siphon off the capital. Exactly as pig farmers do, who first let their animals feed and then kill them, in order to turn them into delicacies to be enjoyed.
Beautiful Exploitation Often Hides Behind the Scams
Not infrequently, workers are forced to carry out phone scams by virtue of real blackmail by the employer, if we want to call these wicked exploiters that. In exchange for pittance wages, entrepreneurs of this level often seize the documents of their employees, trapping them, and may even go so far as to demand their board and lodging expenses back. They are true corporals of crime.
The Most Widespread Frauds
The most widespread frauds are not only telephone frauds. Also very popular are those dubbed play-to-earn. They consist in asking the user to purchase a token, perhaps for an online game promising high winnings, in order to be able to freeze his wallet immediately afterwards and demand a ransom. The situation is aggravated by the fact that not infrequently, even agencies specialised in crypto debt collection are run by fraudsters.
You should also be careful when withdrawing money. Often, in fact, the kiosks are infected with sophisticated viruses or are improperly implanted, without the knowledge of the owner of the exposed brand, which is only used to fool the user into believing that he is using a legitimate counter, when this is not the case at all.
As James Barnacle, deputy director of the FBI's Criminal Investigation Division, has pointed out, the chances of recovering money from cryptocurrency kiosks are pretty slim.
Subscribe to the newsletter from SpazioCrypto and never miss a single update on what is happening in the world of cryptocurrency.
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