The FBI warns of increased crypto scams during Valentine’s Day week

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned of an increasing number of romance scams in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the latest trend affecting cryptocurrencies. According to Wikipedia, romance scams are a ruse of faking romantic intentions toward a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to trick the victim into sending money to the scammer or deceiving them.

Just days before Valentine’s Day, the FBI’s San Francisco office… alarm to the public about an increasing love scam based on complaints filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Romance scams are a practice of creating fake accounts and convincing unwary investors (both men and women) to transfer money in order to gain romantic feelings. According to information from the FBI:

“Victims in the FBI’s San Francisco area lost more than $64 million to love scams, compared to just over $35 million in 2020.”

In 2021 alone, the Secret Service recorded 742 complaints in the Northern District of California, surpassing 720 and 526 complaints in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

In addition, IC3 receive 23,000+ cases of trust/love scams in 2020 with reported losses in excess of $600 million.

“The San Francisco FBI is noticing an increasing trend in love scammers convincing individuals to deposit money in order to invest or trade cryptocurrencies.”

A typical love scam starts with gaining the victims’ trust. These victims are then redirected to the scam platform under the pretense of offering investment opportunities. While the scammers allow investors to withdraw part of the profits from the initial trade to prove their credibility, the victims are forced to invest more money or cryptocurrencies afterwards:

“If the victim wants to back out, the scammers make excuses as to why that can’t happen. Victims are told they will have to pay additional taxes or fees, or that the minimum account balance is insufficient to allow withdrawals.”

However, scammers often become unresponsive after the victim refuses to charge.

The FBI recommends that victims of this type of love scam report their activities and contact their bank.

The FBI also offers some tips for avoiding love scams, including not getting investment advice from purely online interactions, not disclosing financial information and staying away from promises of unreal returns, and “beware of people who claim to have exclusive investment opportunities and you.” urge act quickly.”

Join CoinCu Telegram to keep track of news: https://t.me/coincunews

Follow CoinCu Youtube Channel | Follow CoinCu Facebook page