FBI Report Reveals $9.3 Billion Lost to Crypto Scams in 2024, Seniors Most Affected

• The FBI’s IC3 reported a sharp increase in crypto-related scams in 2024, estimating around $9.3 billion in losses.
• The most affected people due to the scams are those over the age of 60, who accounted for $2.8 billion in losses. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual report on April 23. The report mainly focused on complaints and frauds in the crypto sector and losses that occurred due to it in 2024. 

As per the report, over 140,000 complaints were registered in 2024, estimating around $9.3 billion in losses. The most affected age group due to crypto fraud and scams were the people over the age of  60 years. 

The age group registered around 33,000 complaints totaling $2.8 billion in losses. An increase of 66% in losses as compared to the last year going from $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion was witnessed in 2024. 

A large portion of losses were driven by crypto investment schemes, and the biggest number of complaints were associated with extortion schemes. Under these schemes, the scammers manipulated photos and videos to make explicit content. Other than this, the scams were related to the use of crypto ATMs and kiosks. 

The number of complaints has increased significantly since 2017. The majority of the complaints (around 19,508) were registered in California, totaling $1.39 billion. 

Crypto Fraud Soars in 2024, AI Predicted to Worsen Scams in 2025

In February 2025, the FBI revealed that its operation level up had saved many victims of crypto fraud around $285 million between the duration of one year starting from January 2024 to January 2025.

On this matter, Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, predicted that 2025 could see even more numbers of scams as compared to any year. The reason driving the numbers will be the generative AI, that makes the fraud more scalable and inexpensive.

Chainalysis further approximated the illicit crypto volume in 2024 which stood around $41 billion over the globe. Around 25% of the capital included hacking, extortion, trafficking or scams. 

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