A report from the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) says cryptocurrency scams are now the second most dangerous. It also said that “Payments made with cryptocurrency that resulted in a loss of money more than doubled from 2020.”
The BBB is seeing a rise in crypto scams.
U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) released its 2021 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report Friday. This report shows how likely it is that a business will scam you. “This annual report is based on data that people and businesses have sent to the BBB Scam Tracker,” the report says. It shows how scams are done, who is being scammed, which scams have the most impact, and more.
The BBB was founded in 1912 and is a private, nonprofit group that works to build trust in the marketplace, its website says.
The report says: Cryptocurrency scams went from being the seventh most risky in 2020 to the second most risky in 2021.
Online scams stayed at the top of the list of the most dangerous, accounting for 37.4% of all scams reported to the BBB Scam Tracker in 2021. In 2021, employment scams were the third most dangerous thing to do. They had been the second most dangerous thing to do.
There were just 1.9 percent of the scams that were reported to BBB Scam Tracker that involved cryptocurrency. The median dollar loss was $1,200. This is a lot more than the overall median dollar loss of $169. More than 66% of people who were scammed by this type of scam lost money, according to the report.
People are being scammed on a lot of different social media platforms by people who want to help them invest in bitcoin, the BBB says.
In 2020, the number of payments made with cryptocurrency that led to a loss of money more than doubled.
A report from the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust says that scammers change their tactics all the time and appear to be using more cryptocurrency to commit fraud. Melissa Lanning Trumpower, the executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, said this.
The Better Business Bureau’s report also gives some advice on how to stay safe from cryptocurrency scams, and it does that too. The first thing people should do is be wary of anyone who says they can make a lot of money quickly with little risk. Scammers could also “pose as your friend on social media by hacking into their accounts,” the report says.
They also said not to use an online payment system to pay someone you don’t know, and always check the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) site to see if someone is a broker.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
