The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center has released its cryptocurrency fraud report for 2023. Americans lost $5.6 billion due to cryptocurrency fraud that year, up 45% from 2022, it said. Crypto-related complaints represented 10% of the total received, but almost 50% of the total lost that year, the FBI said.

The report found that of the 69,000 crypto-related complaints the FBI received in 2023, people over 60 were most often victimized, accounting for almost $1.6 billion of the losses. Almost 71% of the crypto fraud was related to investment schemes, and about 10% involved call center fraud and government impersonation scams.

Money stolen through crypto confidence schemes

The FBI received complaints from over 200 countries, but the vast majority of complaints and losses were from the United States. Many of the losses were the result of confidence schemes. The FBI had one main piece of advice to avoid this type of scam:

“There is one thing these scammers typically will not do — they will not meet with you in real life. If an investment opportunity comes from someone who you have never met in person […] be extremely cautious of the advice.”

Americans are also liable to labor trafficking as well, the FBI warned. That is when workers are lured into taking positions abroad, such as at call centers, that turn out to be exploitative. Pig butchering scams are often run from call centers using foreign labor. Employers may demand restitution for employment expenses such as room and board and may seize the worker’s passport or other documents.

Other fraudulent activities that threaten US citizens include play-to-earn scams that charge the user to purchase tokens for an online game and then freeze the user’s wallet. Businesses claiming to recover lost crypto may also victimize customers.

Source: Leo Schwartz

ATMs pose multiple risks

Kiosks (automated teller machines) have proven to provide scammers with many opportunities. The FBI recorded 5,500 cases involving kiosks, which resulted in losses of over $189 million.

Kiosks are preferred to banks by scammers due to the anonymity of ATM transactions. Kiosk transactions have led to complaints involving customer service, government impersonation, extortion, romance scams and other schemes.

Deputy assistant director of the FBI criminal investigative division James Barnacle told ABC News that chances of recovering money lost through a crypto kiosk are “slim.”

Barnacle added that the FBI notifies people when it discovers they are the victims of fraud. Of “the 3,000 people we’ve notified this year, 75% had no idea they were victims of fraud,” Barnacle said.

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