The US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has issued a caution against the increase in the cases of romance scams based on crypto across the San Francisco Bay Area, as the field is becoming a growingly popular trend. Only in the days before Valentine’s day, an alert for the public was issued on the behalf of the field office of the FBI in Francisco that the complaints have frequently been filed by the residents regarding the respective romance scams under the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) of the FBI.
A romance scam takes account of making fake accounts and then promising innocent investors (including women and men) to transact their funds to get romantic.
As per the information provided on the behalf of the FBI, the victims belonging to the territory of the FBI subsidiary in San Francisco underwent a loss of up to $64M in such romance scams and this ratio is huge in comparison with the almost $35M lost in 2020.
Solely in 2021, the security and intelligence service got more than 742 complaints across California’s Northern District, overwhelming the 526 as well as 720 complaints witnessed during 2019 as well as 2020 respectively. Apart from that, the IC3 got above 23,000 complaints dealing with confidence/romance frauds in 2020, with approximately $600M in the losses mentioned in the reports.
The caution of the FBI notes that significant escalation is being seen in the trend where the romance fraudsters are convincing the people to transfer funds for the trading or investment in crypto. A romance scam begins with taking the victims into confidence and making them go to fraudulent venues that promise investment opportunities.
As the scammers permit the investors to be benefitted from some gains in the case of the earliest trade to show their credibility, the targeted people get entrapped in their temptation and invest additional funds.
When an affected person attempts to take the funds out of the venue, the scammers provide reasons why they cannot let that occur. The victim is told to send extra charges or taxes or else be informed that the funds are not enough to reach the minimum required balance for performing a withdrawal.
According to the recommendation of the FBI, the victims should report the operations of the scammers to the banks. As per the FBI, the investors should consult absolute online interactions, without revealing the financial information thereof.
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