Thousands of U.S. consumers have collectively lost more than $80 million in cryptocurrency scams since October, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed Monday in a new data analysis.
The popularity and value of virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have soared in recent months—and nearly simultaneously, reports of cryptocurrency investment scams flooded into the FTC at record levels.
“We often look for trends in our complaint data so we can warn consumers about scams and fraud they should be on outlook for,” an FTC spokesperson told Nextgov Tuesday. “The big jump in reports from consumers about cryptocurrency investment scams really stood out to us.”
Cryptocurrencies make up a suite of monies exchanged online and secured by cryptography. Some retail giants more recently started accepting payments in the form of these currencies, and though they’re largely considered unstable, their prices have also reached new highs in the last year.
“Some say there’s a Wild West vibe to the crypto culture, and an element of mystery too,” an FTC official wrote in the new report, adding that those and other features play “right into the hands of scammers.”
While the millions in losses mentioned only ..
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