Americans are losing more money to crypto scams than ever

Crypto mining racks of a supercomputer mining cryptocurrency.

Americans are losing more money than ever to cryptocurrency scams, according to the FBI.

The FBI’s 2023 cryptocurrency fraud report, released earlier this week, found that Americans lost $5.6 billion to crypto scammers last year. The massive figure represents a 45% increase from the previous year.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the best way to fight crypto scammers is to report potential crimes to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, even if no financial loss is involved. The center received more than 69,000 complaints regarding cybercrime and financial fraud related to cryptocurrency last year, the report says.

Wray said scams targeting investors using cryptocurrency are “skyrocketing in severity and complexity.” Crypto scams related to investment fraud made up most of the complaints submitted to the center, with 32,094 reports. The second-highest reported category was tech support scams, with 8,719, according to the report.

The report says investment crypto scams also reported the highest losses, with Americans losing over $3.9 billion in crypto investment fraud in 2023. Personal data breach scams took second place, with more than $490 million in losses.

People over 60 reported the most instances of crypto fraud and the highest losses, with more than 16,000 reports totaling more than $1.6 billion in total losses among the age group, according to the FBI.

A recent report by the Better Business Bureau found that Gen Z loses the most money to online scams, but people aged 55 to 64 are more susceptible to online investment scams, the report says.

The vast majority of people who reported losing money to crypto fraud involving a kiosk — or a crypto ATM — were over 60, according to the FBI. People in that age group lost more than $124 million to scams using a crypto ATM, while ages 50 to 59 had the second highest losses with more than $11 million.

Some tips the FBI recommends to avoid crypto scams are to make sure calls are coming from a phone number registered to the company reaching out to you and to look for inconsistencies in fake website domain names and emails.

The FBI also says no legitimate law enforcement or government agency will ever demand payment through a cryptocurrency kiosk, and if an investment seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“Investment involves risk,” the FBI says. “Individuals should invest based on their financial objectives and financial resources and, if in any doubt, should seek advice from a licensed financial advisor.”