Crypto scams more costly to US than ransomware, Feds say • The Register

The FBI says investment fraud was the form of cybercrime that incurred the greatest financial loss for Americans last year.

Investment scams, often promising huge returns, led to reported losses of $4.57 billion throughout the year – a 38 percent increase from $3.31 billion in 2022. The vast majority prey on those looking to make a quick buck with cryptocurrency, with these kinds of scams contributing just shy of $4 billion to the overall losses.

The FBI warned of increases in crypto scams in March last year, saying most begin with some sort of social engineering, like a romance or confidence scam, which then evolve into crypto investment fraud.

These cons also led to a rise in scams themed around the recovery of funds lost to investment scams, preying on vulnerable victims at their lowest. In some cases, victims would be strung along for long periods of time and convinced to make multiple payments to recovery services that would never reunite them with their stolen funds.

The total losses from investment fraud also beat those incurred by ransomware across the country, according to the latest report [PDF] from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). It was barely even a comparison, in fact, with ransomware apparently costing victims just $59.6 million for the entire year.

That figure is adjusted, not including the cost of downtime for businesses still in their recovery phases, for example, but it still seems especially low to a reporter who’s covered one-off ransom fees in the $15 million region.

The average ransom demand in the US is also said to be around $1.5 million, and with the IC3’s reported 2,825 ransomware-related complaints throughout the year, something isn’t adding up.

El Reg asked the feds for clarity but they didn’t immediately respond.

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