{"id":32314,"date":"2024-09-16T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T02:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32314"},"modified":"2024-09-16T22:40:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T03:40:41","slug":"cryptocurrency-fraud-cost-americans-5-6-billion-in-2023-fbi-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32314","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency fraud cost Americans $5.6 billion in 2023: FBI report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Cryptocurrency-related complaints accounted for roughly 10% of financial fraud complaints but represented nearly 50% of losses, up 45% since 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The FBI&#8217;s Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 69,000 complaints about cryptocurrency fraud in 2023, with estimated losses of over $5.6 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic3.gov\/Media\/PDF\/AnnualReport\/2023_IC3CryptocurrencyReport.pdf\"><u>report<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;found that &#8220;the exploitation of cryptocurrency was most pervasive in investment scams, where losses accounted for almost 71 percent of all losses related to cryptocurrency.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Call center frauds &#8220;accounted for about 10 percent of losses associated with cryptocurrency.&#8221; Confidence and romance scams accounted for 3,749 complaints, while 8,630 complaints involved extortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Although the &#8220;blockchain&#8221; ledger system permanently records cryptocurrency transactions, &#8220;the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, the speed of irreversible transactions, and the ability to transfer value around the world make cryptocurrency an attractive vehicle for criminals,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The rapidity of cryptocurrency transfers, the report said, impedes recovery efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;Once an individual sends a payment, the recipient owns the cryptocurrency and often quickly transfers it into an account overseas for cash out purposes,&#8221; the report noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The report breaks down complaints and losses by the age of complainants. The over-60 demographic took the lead, with over 24% of complaints and roughly 29% of losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The largest share of complaints came from California, at 9,522, which also led losses at $1,155,315,595.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/nation\/crime\/cryptocurrency-fraud-cost-americans-56-billion-2023-fbi-report\">justthenews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cryptocurrency-related complaints accounted for roughly 10% of financial fraud complaints but represented nearly 50% of losses, up 45% since 2022 The FBI&#8217;s Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 69,000 complaints about cryptocurrency fraud in 2023, with estimated losses of over $5.6 billion. The&nbsp;report&nbsp;found that &#8220;the exploitation of cryptocurrency was most pervasive in investment scams, where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[6106,10226,419,1752],"class_list":["post-32314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-6106","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-fbi","tag-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32316,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314\/revisions\/32316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}