/security

News and resources on cyber and physical threats to banks and fintechs worldwide.

Americans lost $5.6bn to crypto-related fraud in 2023 - FBI

Americans lost more than $5.6 billion in cryptocurrency-related fraud scams in 2023, a 45% rise on the previous year, according to the FBI.

Be the first to comment

Americans lost $5.6bn to crypto-related fraud in 2023 - FBI

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

While the number of cryptocurrency-related complaints to the FBI - 69,000 - accounted for just 10% of all financial fraud complaints last year, they represented 50% of total losses.

The likes of bitcoin and ether are used in a host of frauds, although investment scams dominate, accounting for around 71% - $3.9 billion - of all crypto losses. Call centre frauds, including customer support scams and government impersonation scams, accounted for about 10% of crypto losses.

People over 60 filed the most complaints about crypto scams, reporting the most losses - over $1.6 billion. California saw nearly double the number of complaints of any other state.

Michael Nordwall, assistant director, criminal investigative division, FBI, writes in an FBI report: "The decentralised nature of cryptocurrency, the speed of irreversible transactions, and the ability to transfer value around the world make cryptocurrency an attractive vehicle for criminals, while creating challenges to recover stolen funds."

Sponsored [New Impact Study] Microservices Architecture: Future-Proofing Payments Technology

Related Company

Comments: (0)

[Webinar] Solving the KYC challenge with end-to-end processesFinextra Promoted[Webinar] Solving the KYC challenge with end-to-end processes