Mon 04 July 2022:
People in the United States lost over $185 million in cryptocurrency through romance scams in the first quarter of this year, as fraudsters employ new methods to defraud their victims, with romance scams prominently featured.
According to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation, about 46,000 Americans have reported losing more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency to scammers since early 2021.
According to BanklessTimes, romance scams are the second most popular sort of cryptocurrency scam.
“Victims of romance scams learn that the heart is not so smart the hard way. Their search for love makes them easy pickings for conniving individuals that dupe them out of their money,” said Jonathan Merry, CEO of BanklessTimes.
On average, victims of romance crypto scams lose about $10,000.
“By now, the victims are so trusting that they’re willing to follow their ‘advice’ to their detriment,” said the report.
Business and government impersonation scams are the other forms. These accounted for losses of $133 million in Q1 2022. These involve the fraudster impersonating someone in authority and then gaining the victim’s credentials.
Younger people are more susceptible to crypto scams. Statistics show that most likely victims are in the 20 to 40-age bracket.
“The worst hit are people in their thirties, who suffer 35 per cent of the losses. People in their seventies lose nearly $12,000 in these scams,” said Elizabeth Kerr, a financial content specialist.
But romance scams aren’t the only ones that Americans fall for.
Investment fraud is the most prevalent sort of cryptocurrency fraud, and since 2021, the US FTC has received reports of losses totaling $575 million as a result of this fraud.
NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
