The US Federal Bureau of Investigations reported that from January to January this year, about 4,300 potential victims were able to save from crypto -mesh, which they saved about $ 285 million using law enforcement officers.

The FBI conducted the operation of Level Up, identifying possible victims of fraud and calling people directly. During one of these calls, a person who almost got to the bait of crypto -mesh, said that he was already ready to invest in a certain scheme of $ 1 million. Another investor planned to sell his house to transfer $ 500,000 to the swindlers, and the elderly woman had already removed a similar amount your pension account. After the intervention of the FBI, these people retained their money, the department said.

The Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Criminal Investigations, James Barnacle, said that most of the victims that the FBI contacted did not even suspect that they were deceived. Some were so emotionally attached to fraudsters that they had to be sent to the FBI department to provide psychological assistance. There were cases when the FBI was able to prevent suicide in time.

In 2023, the Center for complaints about Internet crimes (IC3) received messages from people whose total losses from cryptocurrency fraud are estimated at $ 3.9 billion. According to FBI estimates, the actual figure can be much larger, since the IC3 receives about 3200 complaints monthly.

“The victims are persuaded to invest in some crypto project and show amazing investment income. On paper, in an electronic application or on a website. It seems that their money is working. However, this is a fictitious account, and when the victims are trying to withdraw their money, they get a refusal. Some scammers allow victims to withdraw part of their alleged profit at an early stage. But this is done in order to gain people’s trust and encourage to invest even more funds in the project, ”Barnakl said.

In October, the FBI launched its own NexFundai token, which has no financial value. Token became a bait for scammers engaged in manipulations in the cryptocurrency market.