Crypto scams are now a billion-dollar market TechRadar Skip to main content TechRadar is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's why you can trust us. Crypto scams are now a billion-dollar market By Sead Fadilpašić published 6 June 2022 Fake investment opportunities, fake NFTs (Image credit: Shutterstock / Sapann Design) Audio player loading… In the last year and a half, more than 46,000 people were scammed out of their hard-earned cryptocurrencies for a total of over $1 billion, a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report has claimed. The report says the average reported loss for an individual was $2,600 worth of either bitcoin, tether, or ether. For almost half of the victims, the report noted that the theft started with either an ad, a post, or a message on a social media platform. Social media platforms are teeming with cryptocurrency scams which are, most of the time, "bogus investment opportunities". This type of fraud resulted in $575 million in losses. More than a third of all social media fraud revolves around cryptocurrencies, far more than any other payment method, the report further stated. (opens in new tab) Share your thoughts on Cybersecurity and get a free copy of the Hacker's Manual 2022 (opens in new tab). Help us find how businesses are preparing for the post-Covid world and the implications of these activities on their cybersecurity plans. Enter your email at the end of this survey (opens in new tab) to get the bookazine, worth $10.99/£10.99. Elon Musk and fake exchanges Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, are the most popular platforms for fraud, it was concluded. Less than a month ago, researchers discovered a fake cryptocurrency exchange, called BitVex, which promised gullible investors a quick and easy way to double, or triple, their investments. The fraudsters used a modified video of Elon Musk, to promote the scam, and used various social media platforms, including YouTube, to promote the campaign. Elon Musk often tweets and talks about bitcoin and dogecoin, and as such, has his identity (opens in new tab) abused by cryptocurrency scammers almost constantly.Read more> Meta hit with lawsuit over failure to squash crypto scams (opens in new tab) > A deepfake of Elon Musk is trying to scam people out of crypto again (opens in new tab) > Scammers are using a whole load of tricks to launch cryptomining scams (opens in new tab) Besides bogus investing opportunities, fraudsters are also often hunting for victims in the NFT community. Non-fungible tokens are a major trend right now, promising huge financial gain for investors who join a solid project as early as possible. The Bored Ape Yacht Club project, for example, earned the earliest investors millions of dollars, who are now frequent targets. The fraudsters often use this fear of missing out, to trick people into giving away their login credentials (opens in new tab), or connecting their wallets with fake projects and empty the contents as soon as they do. These are the best firewalls right now (opens in new tab) Via: Reuters (opens in new tab) Sead Fadilpašić Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he's written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He's also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications. See more Computing news Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. MOST POPULARMOST SHARED1You may not have to sell a body part to afford the Nvidia RTX 4090 after all2One of the world's most popular programming languages is coming to Linux3The iPhone 14 Pro is made of the wrong stuff; the Pixel 7 proves that to me4Apple October launches: the new devices we might see this month5Google's AI editing tricks are making Photoshop irrelevant for most people1Miofive 4K Dash Cam review2Logitech's latest webcam and headset want to relieve your work day frustrations3Best offers on Laptops for Education – this festive season4Intel Raptor Lake flagship CPU hits a huge 8.2GHz overclock5I tried the weirdest-looking Bluetooth speaker in the world, and I utterly adore it Technology Magazines (opens in new tab)● (opens in new tab)The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviewsFrom$12.99 (opens in new tab)View (opens in new tab)