Scam Alert DME

The FBI said Thursday, Feb. 13, they have saved cryptocurrency scam victims more than $285 million and alerted more than 4,300 U.S. victims to possible scams in the last year.

The numbers come from Operation Level Up, an FBI initiative to identify and notify cryptocurrency investment scam victims actively being defrauded. FBI and U.S. Secret Service agents contact victims directly under the initiative. The FBI said around 76% of the individuals they contacted were unaware they were being scammed, and an additional 500 international scam victims were also discovered.

Cryptocurrency investment scams often involve unsolicited online contact, a long period of building trust, providing fake investment opportunities and a false sense of urgency to send money, the FBI said. The scams often involve showing the victim a dummy account and promising large investment returns.

“Unfortunately, we continue to see these scams grow and evolve everyday,” said Chad Yarbrough, the FBI Criminal Investigative Division assistant director, in a press release. “It doesn’t matter where the subjects are – we will use every tool at our disposal to stop them from targeting U.S. citizens.

“By raising awareness, we can prevent countless people from losing their savings and send a clear message to criminals that these scams will not be tolerated,” he said.

The FBI found $3.9 billion was lost to scammers in 2023, and $5 billion in loses were estimated for 2024 before the numbers are finalized, according to James Barnacle, the FBI Criminal Investigative Division deputy assistant director. He said the majority of scams have been traced back to Chinese criminal investigations, and Asian Americans are being targeted due to the common language.

Most victims are between the ages of 30 and 60 and are tech-savvy, Barnacle said. The scams were not restricted to specific platforms, and many scammers have begun purchasing ad space to appear on the general web, he said.

The FBI said in numerous instances, victims said FBI intervention stopped them from liquidating their retirement accounts, selling their homes and taking out loans. Many victims were attempting to pay for cancer treatments or support dependent family members with the returns. Some were referred to the FBI Victim Services Division.

The FBI agents who track and contact victims undergo a week-long training before the program about how to converse with victims who are unaware they are being scammed.

The FBI also collects information about the scammer applications, website and social media accounts to alert technology companies. It advised individuals to avoid releasing any financial or personal information, sending money to someone met online, investing solely based on the advice of an online profile, downloading or using links from online profiles, paying additional fees or taxes if already invested in the potential scam and paying for services that attempt to recover lost funds.

Phase two of Operation Level Up includes freezing and seizing funds stolen funds and returning them to victims, but returns thus far have been small, Barnacle said. The FBI has a 123-member Virtual Currency Response Team working to freeze and seize funds, he said.

The FBI will never ask for money, to move communications to private messaging, for personal or bank information other than confirming identify. Real agents will provide methods to verify their employment with the office.

Information on scams and how to report them can be found on IC3.gov.