Americans lost a record-breaking $20.9 billion to cybercrime last year due to a surge in cybercrime. In response, the FBI is cracking down harshly against crypto scammers.
FBI Director Kash Patel took to social media to warn those decentralized financial systems to avoid accruing ill-gotten gains.
According to the IC3 report, cryptocurrency-related fraud now makes up more than half of all cybercrime losses in the United States, reaching a staggering $11 billion.
The pseudonymous nature of blockchain makes it possible for scammers to avoid traditional financial tracking.
Investment fraud accounted for $10.7 billion of the overall cybercrime losses, which is the costliest category.
Criminals rely on an array of sophisticated tactics that include "pig butchering", fake exchanges, liquidity pool scams, as well as fraudulent decentralized finance (DeFi) that are meant to siphon off crypto from uninitiated victims.
Who is getting hit the hardest?
Unsurprisingly, elderly Americans are the most vulnerable demographic, accounting for nearly a third of the total losses last year.
Older adults typically fall for investment traps, romance scams, tech support fraud, and so on. Their retirement accounts can be potentially wiped out in a matter of days (as evidenced by countless media reports in various states).
California, Texas, and Florida were the top states by cryptocurrency losses.
However, the FBI is not asleep at the wheel. The bureau has managed to freeze more than 3,000 illicit cryptocurrency wallets, thus saving more than $500 million.
The most recent social media statement indicates that the FBI plans to expand these asset-recovery and tracking operations.
U.Today Editorial Team
Dan Burgin
