Cryptocurrency, for those who do not know, is a type of digital currency that is entirely online. It isn’t like any of the traditional money we have, as it is not issued by a government or a central bank, so it is entirely borderless. Instead, it runs on decentralized networks using something called a blockchain, which is a public ledger that records transactions. People can buy or sell cryptocurrency using digital wallets through online exchanges, and perhaps the most well-known examples are Bitcoin and Ethereum, although thousands of other types exist. Since it is decentralized, it is very prone to transactions being difficult to reverse, but at the same time, it makes a good offer as it provides speed and independence from traditional banks.
The problem lies within those same qualities that it boasts about, however, which have made it a prime target for criminals. In fact, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, Americans alone who have submitted complaints regarding cryptocurrency fraud have reported over $11 billion in losses across over 181,000 complaints. I don’t know about you, but I find that number pretty staggering. And if that wasn’t enough, investment fraud alone has accounted for nearly half of all scam-related losses in 2025, with the IC3 in total recording over a million total complaints.
Why crypto?
Crypto has been a scammer’s tool of choice because, unlike credit cards or bank transfers, cryptocurrency payments are mostly irreversible. Why? Well, there are no chargebacks, no insurance since it isn’t backed by a government, and there are limited legal ways that you can get it back. While transactions are recorded on the public blockchain ledger, the wallet addresses that these payments are transferred to are often incredibly difficult to trace back to real identities. It is so difficult because the blockchain only records that this address sent this amount to that address, and does not record who owns either address. This is all the more complicated because scammers often use burner wallets or mix stolen funds, where many transactions are pooled together to scramble the trail. It has gotten so bad in recent years that the FTC has advised that if someone demands payment in cryptocurrency, it is, point blank, a scam.
How it unfolds
The most common and devastating form of crypto fraud is the investment scam, or the “pig butchering” scam. What happens is scammers build trust with victims over a long while, often through social media, before encouraging them to sign up for fake trading platforms. To reinforce the illusion of legitimacy, victims are sometimes allowed to withdraw small gains early on from the platforms, before the scammer disappears with everything from the victim’s wallet. The Better Business Bureau found that over 80% of Americans targeted in crypto scams lost money, with a median loss of $3,800, going up into the millions.
To compound this, AI has also been helping these scams. Scammers employ voice clones, deepfake videos of public figures, and fake social profiles in order to make the scams look more convincing.
Targeting
The most common people who are targeted are over the age of 60. Seniors are frequently targeted by government impersonation scams, where scammers pose as IRS agents or law enforcement. They then claim there is a warrant for the victim’s arrest, and instruct them to withdraw money and deposit it into an ATM designed for Bitcoin. And since they’re older folks, it often takes them a while to realize they’ve been deceived, and by that time, the money is all gone. Also to note, even though seniors lose the most, younger generations are often more via social media and “get rich quick” scams.
What you can do
The FBI has encouraged the campaign for “Take a Beat”. This campaign says to resist pressure to act quickly, never send money or share money with people you don’t know. No legitimate business or governmental agency will demand money in cryptocurrency. If something is too good to be true, like guaranteed returns, it is. Just take it slow and research independently.
