In a nutshell
- Seniors lost more than$ 107 million in a year due to increased 99 % in the number of crypto ATM fraud complaints.
- Patients over the age of 60 lost four times the amount lost general, or$ 83K.
- Investment fraud continues to pose a significant threat, causing$ 1.6 billion in losses to seniors.
A troubling trend has been revealed by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center ( IC3 )’s 2024 annual report, which was released on Wednesday.
Despite making up a smaller portion of the people, the agency discovered that Americans over the age of 60 and older are most susceptible to crypto scams.
The criminals facing Americans today may appear differently than they did in the past, but they still want to harm people for their own gain, according to B. Chad Yarbrough, the FBI’s legal and cyber division’s operations director.
Crypto-related fraud, according to the FBI, reached an all-time deep of just under$ 9.3 billion in 2024, a 66 % increase over the past month’s$ 5.6 billion.
The influence on older Americans is particularly noteworthy despite the information being concerning for all demographics.
Near$ 2.8 billion, or 30 % of the overall crypto fraud losses, were caused by people over the age of 60, despite the age group accounting for only about 17 % of the total U.S. people.
The agency reported that this group filed 33, 369 complaints about crypto-related crimes, with an average loss of$ 83,000 per victim, which is more than four times the figure of$ 193,372 for other online crimes.
The FBI’s assertion that the reported figures possible underestimate real losses is noteworthy is worth mentioning.
A complete picture of the size of crypto fraud is lacking because some more victims rarely report or are unable to report these occurrences to law enforcement.
Crypto scams is on the rise.
Another issue is the explosive surge in bitcoin ATM and shop fraud, which saw incidents nearly double between 2023 and 2024.
Scammers increasingly target the old with their targeted exchanges, which are easy but frequently misunderstood.
According to the FBI, 2, 674 people over the age of 60 contacted them about$ 107 million in losses, especially through bitcoin ATM techniques.
A scammer usually “requests settlement from the victim and may ask the victim to withdraw funds from their financial records, such as funding or retirement accounts,” according to a separate FBI warning.
The group’s$ 1.6 billion in losses are still accounted for by investment fraud, which is still the largest group of crypto schemes affecting elders.
Despite its initial response, the FBI has already started a campaign called Operation Level Up, which locates and alerts crypto-investors, saving an estimated$ 285. million since its start in January of last year.
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