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According to the FBI, the amount of money that scammers scammed people out of cryptocurrency-related scams in 2023 was staggering. When it came to these losses in the U.S., some states were hit harder than others, the FBI study found.
According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), total losses from cryptocurrency scams are estimated to reach $5.6 billion in 2023. Said this weekThis was a 45% increase from the previous year.
According to the IC3, the most common methods used by malicious criminals to commit cryptocurrency scams last year were investment, tech support, identity theft and extortion.
Of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, California had the highest losses from fraud involving any form of cryptocurrency, at approximately $1.155 billion.
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According to the data, there was a difference of more than $743 million between the losses reported to crypto scams in California and those recorded by people in the second-highest ranking state.
Including California, the five states where IC3 said Americans were scammed out of the most money were:
1. California: $1.155 billion
State Capitol Aerial photo of the California State Capitol. ((Photo Credit: Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
2. Texas: $411.9 million
An aerial view of the downtown Austin, Texas skyline on April 11, 2023. For the second year in a row, the city of Austin has been ranked as the top U.S. job destination, according to data collected by The Wall Street Journal. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images/Getty Images)
3. Florida: $390.2 million
WalletHub released a report on Monday outlining the best U.S. states to retire in 2022. Topping the list was Florida. Pictured here is Tallahassee, Florida. (iStock)
4. New York: $317.3 million
A view of Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan on May 19, 2021 in New York City. (Gary Hirschhorn/Getty Images/Getty Images)
5. New Jersey — $179.4 million
New Jersey took the top spot as the best state for remote work. (iStock/iStock)
“Cryptocurrencies' decentralized nature, the speed of irreversible transactions, and their ability to transfer value around the world make them an attractive vehicle for criminals, while also making it difficult to recover stolen funds,” FBI agent Michael Nordwall wrote in the IC3's crypto fraud-focused report.
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Losses from cryptocurrency fraud amounted to $5.6 billion, which was linked to a total of more than 69,000 complaints the IC3 received in 2023 specifically about such schemes.
“While cryptocurrency-related complaints only make up about 10% of total financial fraud complaints, the losses associated with these complaints account for almost 50% of total losses,” Nordwall said.
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In 2023, the IC3 received more than 880,400 complaints about all kinds of internet crimes, with losses from these complaints exceeding $12.5 billion.
