Crypto scams have cost people more than $1 billion since 2021, says FTC

The crypto market can be volatile, but it’s still attractive to young people who have “higher risk appetites,” said Chris Adam of SharpRank.

According to a report released by the Federal Trade Commission on Friday, more than 46,000 people have lost over $1 billion in the last two years to scam artists.

Last year's losses were 60 times what they were in the previous year.

According to the FTC, the top cryptocurrencies people said they used to pay were ether, tether, and bitcoins.

Payment transfers can't be reversed, which is one of the main features of cryptocurrencies. Sometimes this isn't a good thing. Consumers can reverse a transaction if they claim they have been charged for something they didn't get.

Almost half of the people who reported losing their money to a scam said it started on a social media platform. The platform mentioned in the most complaints was Telegram.

There were a lot of fake investment opportunities. There were $575 million of losses related to investment opportunities. When people tried to get their money out of fake investment websites and apps they couldn't because they were fake.

The FTC warns in its report that there is no centralized authority to flag suspicious transactions. This is not the first time that these considerations have played into the hands of scam artists.

Romance scam is the second most common source of fraud losses, followed by business and government impersonation scam, which the FTC said can often start with fake messages pretending to be from tech companies.

Consumers under the age of 30 were more likely to be taken in by scam. According to the FTC, people in their 20s were more likely to report losing money to a scam than older people.

The FTC says that people should be aware of the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, avoid business arrangements that require a purchase, and watch out for romantic solicitations.

The news came after a few weeks of turmoil in the market. Half a trillion dollars was erased from the sector's market cap and investor confidence was hurt by a failed U.S. dollar-pegged stable coin. Many institutional and retail investors were wiped out, and there are no protections for consumers.

The industry is in a "contraction phase" known as "crypto winter", which has been compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil, and that's why the Winklevoss twins decided to lay off their employees.