The FBI reports that social engineering scams involving cryptocurrencies resulted in greater financial losses than ransomware attacks last year. Fraudsters often impersonated attractive females, engaging victims in lengthy conversations before suggesting joint investments in cryptocurrencies. The scammers controlled the suggested platforms and showed fake gains to encourage victims to invest more. When victims attempted to withdraw funds, the fraudsters, posing as customer support, demanded a withdrawal fee, causing further losses. In contrast, ransomware attacks accounted for a relatively small $59.6 million. However, the FBI acknowledges that this figure may not accurately represent the true cost of ransomware, as it excludes business downtime costs and only includes incidents reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
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