The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says over 46,000 people Americans have reported losing more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency to scams between January 2021 and March 2022.
This is a significant increase compared to last year's report issued by the FTC, when the agency
revealed that roughly $80 million were lost to cryptocurrency investment scams based on around 7,000 reports.
Today's report aligns with the FBI's 2021 Internet Crime Report [
PDF]. The U.S. law enforcement agency said that tens of thousands of reports pointed to over $1.6 billion in cryptocurrency losses.
"In 2021, the IC3 received 34,202 complaints involving the use of some type of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Ripple," the FBI said [
PDF].
"While that number showed a decrease from 2020's victim count (35,229), the loss amount reported in IC3 complaints increased nearly seven-fold, from 2020's reported amount of $246,212,432, to total reported losses in 2021 of more than $1.6 billion."
Today, the FTC also added that one in four dollars paid to scammers within the last year had been paid using cryptocurrency.
