- Gen Z faces increasing crypto scams, often falling victim to fake investment offers via social media platforms.
- Scammers frequently impersonate crypto experts or celebrities on Instagram and TikTok to deceive young users.
- Over 67,000 crypto scams were reported in 2023, with losses reaching up to $1 million, making online threats severe.
The generation that is believed to be technologically literate is falling victim to online crypto scams. Since young people are actively engaged in social networks and other technologies, swindler have discovered new methods of deception of this digital savvy population. However, although cryptocurrency takes only a small share of the illicit financial flows, the scams are still a critical issue.
According to a recent report, for the last two years, Gen Z has experienced the most severe monetary loss from scams. This generation which is highly exposed to technological advancement comes across new people on social networks and they are vulnerable to being conned. Through, the use of the social media, gaming platforms or even dating apps, scammers will try to deceive their victims in one way or another. It may be the result of the fact that most of the young people who use the services of such exchanges are not aware of the specific features of cryptocurrencies and can become victims of frauds offering to make fast profit with high losses in the end.
Rising Crypto Scam Tactics
It is common for fraudsters to fish for the young people especially by impersonating as experts or celebrities in the crypto world. Social media has been used where they create fake accounts on Instagram and TikTok and present investment opportunities that look very genuine and are not. Love scams also known as “pig butchering” are also on the rise. These scams involve fraudsters creating fake romantic interests for their targets, and on such platforms as Tinder, to defraud them of money or have them invest in bogus cryptocurrencies.
Another common scheme is URL spoofing, where a hacker invents domain names that resemble those of genuine organisations with only slight variations in the URL. Many of these fake sites provide giveaways or investment packages that direct users to fake exchange or cold wallets from which funds are stolen.
Avoiding Crypto Scams
In order to safeguard themselves users need to be cautious when interacting with strangers on the internet. According to the report, this is an obvious scam and anyone who receives such unsolicited offers especially from strangers should desist from it.
According to a report by FTC, over 67,000 crypto-related scams were reported in 2023 itself with the median loss being $3,800. Some of the victims have lost property and or money amounting to more than $1 million, thus making these threats pretty serious. Therefore, Gen Z and other crypto users must ensure that they get information on the latest scams that are being carried out in the digital world.
