Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
Since the start of 2021 through June 2022, people have reported losing over $1.3 billion in cryptocurrency to scams. Nearly half say the scam began with an ad, post, or message on social media. The largest share of the losses, about $785 million, involved bogus investment opportunities. Cryptocurrency was the payment method used for about one in every four dollars reported lost to fraud during this period. FTC experts at the EMS briefing on Sep 9 explained how cryptocurrency scams work, why they are growing so fast, and what the latest “trending” scams are.
According to Elizabeth Kwok, assistant director of analysis for the council’s Assistant Direct of Bureau of Consumer Protection, a cryptocurrency is a currency that exists on the Internet, like airline miles or a credit card. Again, there are no physical items, but transactions, transfers, and storage can be done online. Cryptocurrencies are not managed by a central bank or government agency, but the information is disclosed on the Internet, and does not require continuous acceptance by a specific person.
The council’s Consumer Education Specialist, Christina Miranda, said that there are five types of cryptocurrency scams currently in the market: 1. Investment related fraud, 2. Love scammers (Romance), 3. Business and Government imposters, 4. Job Scams, 5. Blackmail. Investment scams are the most common cryptocurrency scams at present. First, cryptocurrency websites are recommended by friends, netizens, etc. The scammers will promise to make big money in a short time and ask for large sums of money. In the past few days, websites mostly showed cryptocurrencies rising in value, enticing consumers to invest more money. After a period of time, if the value of the cryptocurrency drops or consumers want to get their money back from the website, they suddenly find that the website is down, or it will take a larger sum of money to get it out.
Miranda said the best way to protect against cryptocurrency scams is to pay attention to any message asking for payment in cryptocurrency, because there is a very high chance it is a scam and there is no way to get the money back. In addition to being vigilant, victims can also report to the government online at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Although the government has not yet discussed how to deal with cryptocurrency scams, collecting more information and experience of deceived people will help prevent more frauds from happening.
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