The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Web Crime Grievance Heart (IC3) has launched its annual report detailing complaints and losses on account of scams and fraud involving cryptocurrency in 2024.
Based on the report launched on April 23, the IC3 received greater than 140,000 complaints referencing cryptocurrency in 2024, leading to roughly $9.3 billion in losses. The bureau reported that people over the age of 60 had been essentially the most affected by crypto-related fraud, with roughly 33,000 complaints and $2.8 billion in losses.
“Final 12 months noticed a brand new report for losses reported to IC3, totaling a staggering $16.6 billion,” mentioned the report. “Fraud represented the majority of reported losses in 2024, and ransomware was once more essentially the most pervasive risk to essential infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023,” notes the report, including that, as a bunch, these over the age of 60 suffered essentially the most losses and submitted essentially the most complaints.
The report added that the resultant losses had increased roughly 66% since 2023, from roughly $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. Essentially the most important proportion of losses occurred on account of crypto funding schemes, whereas the biggest variety of complaints associated to “sextortion” schemes, by which fraudsters manipulated pictures and movies to create specific content material. Different scams included schemes involving the usage of crypto ATMs or kiosks.
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In February, the FBI reported its “Operation Degree Up” had saved potential victims of crypto fraud roughly $285 million between January 2024 and January 2025. Nevertheless, blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis speculated that 2025 could see the largest number of scams up to now, provided that generative AI is making the follow “extra scalable and inexpensive for dangerous actors to conduct.”
Globally, Chainalysis estimated that there had been roughly $41 billion in illicit crypto quantity in 2024, with roughly 25% of the funds concerned with “hacking, extortion, trafficking, or scams.” Among the most high-profile crimes included the $1.4 billion in crypto stolen from the Bybit exchange in March and North Korean hackers taking more than $1.3 billion.
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