According to a new report from the Better Business Bureau, Investment scams, including those involving cryptocurrency, remained the riskiest scam type in 2024. Romance and friendship scams also climbed to the third riskiest for the first time since BBB began publishing the report.
Both types of scams involve financial grooming, where the scammer builds a relationship with the victim before perpetrating the scam.
Financial grooming scams are often complex and devastating for victims. It can take weeks or months for the scammers to build trust with their targets; then once that happens, the scammer encourages the person to try investing, often in cryptocurrency. It always starts small, but as the investment “grows,” the scammer encourages them to invest even more money. The person will only realize too late, once they’ve invested a significant amount, that the platform is fake, and they can’t get their money back.
More than 80 percent of people who were targeted by investment and cryptocurrency scams, ranked as the number one riskiest, reported losing money to BBB Scam TrackerSM. It also had the second highest median dollar loss at $5,000. Investment scams take many forms, including pressure to purchase, trade, or store digital assets like cryptocurrency with fraudulent exchanges.
Employment scam reports remained the Number 2 scam type in 2024, making up about 14% of all reported scams. Employment scams had a $1,500 median dollar loss.
Romance/friendship scams rose to Number 3 riskiest, with the highest median dollar loss of all scam types, at $6,099.
Online purchase scams dropped further down the list this year, landing at number 4 riskiest. This year, 30.3% of scams submitted to BBB Scam Tracker were online purchase scams, and 87.5% reported losing money.
Some key findings of the report include:
- Overall reported median dollar loss rose 30% from 2023 to 2024. Overall reported susceptibility (the percentage of reports with a monetary loss) fell 14.6%.
- People ages 65+ reported the highest median dollar loss of all age groups with $160, followed by ages 18-24 at $150.
- Employment scams were the No. 1 riskiest for ages 18-34. According to survey research, the flexibility to work from home was the top motivational factor for engaging with the scammer.
- People reported being more likely to lose money when engaging via social media. According to survey research, almost 50% of scams via social media began when the person responded to a social media advertisement or post. About 15% began when the scammer sent them a direct message.
- Credit cards remained the most reported payment method with a monetary loss, followed by bank account debit and online payment system (digital payment app). Reports of people paying scammers with cryptocurrency rose from 3.0% in 2023 to 4.8% in 2024.
- According to our survey research, 29.6% said their mental health was impacted by the scam incident. The top emotions people felt following the scam were anger (60.3%), loss of trust (54.0%), and anxiety/stress/trauma (53.5%).
- Those who engaged with the scammer for more than one day were more likely to report losing money.
- The five most impersonated organizations reported to BBB Scam Tracker in 2023:
- Publishers Clearing House
- U.S. Postal Service
- PayPal
- Amazon
- Spectrum
To read the full 2024 BBB Scam Tracker Risk report, visit: bbbmarketplacetrust.org/riskreport/.
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