The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported that over the past year, cryptocurrency fraud have become the main threat to Americans. The total losses of the victims exceeded $ 9.3 billion. According to the agency, in the area of ​​special risk – elderly people.

According to the report of the Center for complaints about the Internet, in the FBI at the FBI, in 2024 it was registered About 150,000 complaints related to cryptocurrency fraud. This is 66% more than a year earlier.

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Almost two -thirds of financial losses ($ 5.8 billion) fell on crypto investment scams. The Americans over 60 years old were especially injured, which account for 33,369 complaints. The losses of the elderly reached $ 2.84 billion.

“Attackers rubbed into confidence in their victims in various methods, in order to then convince the investment in fake crypto platforms. For this, scammers use complex social technologies, including AI, creating fictitious personalities and manipulating victims, ”said James Barnacle, deputy assistant to FBI director of FBI.

The director of the FBI, Kashyap Patel, said that the greatest damage to the elderly citizens of America inflicted Pig Butchering schemes (“Faring of pigs”). One of the striking examples is the case when scammers imposed themselves as romantic partners and deceive for a 62-year-old resident of Florida to invest $ 300,000 in a false crypto platform. The victim, believing in fake graphs of the growth of assets, lost all savings, after which she appealed to the Center for complaints about the Internet exception at the FBI.

Earlier, TRM Labs security experts said that the largest criminal groups, including North Korean hackers and Mexican drug carthes, depend on Chinese underground banking syndicates that are laundering billions of dollars in cryptocurrency, turning digital money into fiat.