Surge in Crypto Scams: FSMA Sees Significant Spike in Recovery Room Fraud

[sirty143]

Surge in Crypto Scams: FSMA Sees Significant Spike in Recovery Room Fraud

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), Belgium’s financial regulatory agency, has published its mid-2024 report, highlighting a significant increase in fraudulent activities, particularly involving trading platforms and  cryptocurrency scams... See more for yourself here.

Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[Kemarit]

I think it's all about the market cycle, as we are entering the bull run, scammers and criminals are upping this activities as well as they know that many are going to be interested on crypto once more because they think that they are going to make a lot of money in this cycle. And you know how intelligent this criminals is because as per the article, they are contacting those who have been their victims before and maybe they are going to fall for the same trap.

So just remember the old adage "fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me".

[robelneo]

Scammers seem to concentrate their activities and schemes on Cryptocurrency because there are so many uneducated and careless individuals in the Cryptocurrency community.

Those numbers are likely to increase as we move on to adoption and the market grows unless people dedicate their time and effort to how to protect themselves.

These scammers are getting better because there is too much money to make scamming people. Can we have an International organization because if the market is making billions in transactions, so do scammers.

[yhiaali3]

A notable rise was observed in recovery room fraud, which saw a 59% increase compared to the previous year. This type of fraud involves scammers recontacting previous victims of investment scams, posing as lawyers, investigators, or regulatory officials offering assistance in recovering lost funds. These fraudsters typically demand upfront fees or personal information, exploiting the victims’ desperation for recovery.

59% compared to the same period in 2023 is considered a very large increase in fraud cases. I do not know what is the reason for this large increase. Is it a lack of knowledge among the victims or an increase in experience among the fraudsters and the use of advanced fraudulent methods?

It is also noteworthy that a large percentage of the victims are former victims who were previously defrauded, and this is a very unfortunate thing that indicates that many victims do not have sufficient knowledge of fraudulent methods and do not follow the simplest safety rules.

[LogitechMouse]

It already came to a point where scams will just be a normal thing around cryptocurrency. I mean we've been combatting scams for quite a while now, and we constantly educating these newbies and telling them to research and learn first before investing. A significant rise in the number of scam attempts is caused by investors being ignorant. Scammers are evolving every single day, and they will do everything just to get your money.

It's my first time to hear the term "recovery room fraud" although I've already heard this way of scamming people, I didn't know that's the term. Scammers are playing with the feelings of these ignorant investors. "Desperation for recovery". Investors are desperate to recover their funds thus, they aren't using their mind anymore, and they're willing to throw money just to recover their money, but they don't know that they are giving it to scammers yet "again".

I believe that experiencing it will be the way for these investors not to get scammed again because some just don't want to make research first before investing. At the end of the day, scams will be a part of our investing journey in cryptocurrency.

[hugeblack]

Without publishing the growth in the number of users, this study would be meaningless.
If the number of users increases by 1000%, the fraud rate will inevitably increase. Even if you have zero users and the fraud rate is zero, this does not mean that anti-fraud policies are successful.

[pakhitheboss]

I think it's all about the market cycle, as we are entering the bull run, scammers and criminals are upping this activities as well as they know that many are going to be interested on crypto once more because they think that they are going to make a lot of money in this cycle. And you know how intelligent this criminals is because as per the article, they are contacting those who have been their victims before and maybe they are going to fall for the same trap.

Recovery room fraud is not dependent on the market cycle as these scammers are always searching for those newbies who lost access to their funds. The most common fraud is to again get access to the wallets of users who forgot to create a backup or lost the public key. They will ask for an upfront amount for their service and after it is paid they will never contact the victim. If the victim tries to contact them they will block the victim on social media or chat apps.

Phishing and rug pull are the scams that are dependent on the market cycle. I still feel pity for those victims who in 2024 are still falling for phishing scams. Rug pull has become quite difficult to identify with the amount of AI available now days.

[TomPluz]

We don't need this report to see that usually scammers and fraudsters are mushrooming the time when cryptocurrency market is making waves...and before the halving in April there was a bull run and soon many are also expecting the same event to occur after the halving and this can happen maybe towards the 4th quarter or at least in the early months of 2025 (however, don't rely on me with this just another speculation). When more and more people are getting interested with cryptocurrency that can be the time when these evil people will be inserting on the scene so they can fool as many as they can and make some big bucks along the way. What is notable is also the increase in the so-called Recovery Room Fraud where "scammers recontacting previous victims of investment scams, posing as lawyers, investigators, or regulatory officials offering assistance in recovering lost funds. These fraudsters typically demand upfront fees or personal information, exploiting the victims’ desperation for recovery." Personally, it is a big pain in the as* to see these scams in different forms, types and styles victimizing people and platforms...this is one BIG curse in the cryptocurrency industry that should have been wiped out yesterday.

[Z-tight]

For how long have we been warning people that once your coin is lost, it cannot be recovered, i think it is very gullible on the part of the victims to still fall for recovery scams. Whenever you lose your funds, and you are contacted by anyone who claims they can recover it, block them immediately, they are scammers.

We keep hearing about a rise in crypto scams, when indeed it is down to the victims who have refused to learn how to protect themselves and avoid falling victim to scammers.

[hugeblack]

We keep hearing about a rise in crypto scams, when indeed it is down to the victims who have refused to learn how to protect themselves and avoid falling victim to scammers.

Beginners are the ones who are easily scammed. In the world we live in, there are options for refunding money if you do not like the product, a money-back policy, or a 30-day guarantee. Therefore, anyone who uses cryptocurrencies, especially someone who hears that it is a good way to collect millions, will be easily scammed, and then he will decide to abandon all investments.

[Z-tight]

Beginners are the ones who are easily scammed. In the world we live in, there are options for refunding money if you do not like the product, a money-back policy, or a 30-day guarantee. Therefore, anyone who uses cryptocurrencies, especially someone who hears that it is a good way to collect millions, will be easily scammed, and then he will decide to abandon all investments.

Too bad, but you are right. For the very fact that there is a rise in 'recovery room' scam, it simply means so many people use crypto, but do not understand it, they believe it is similar to centralized institutions were the central authority can confiscate, block and reverse if there is a need for it. In the BTC network, unless funds are deposited into a custodial service, it cannot be recovered.

[NotATether]

The only legit wallet recovery service ----> https://www.walletrecoveryservices.com
Bitcointalk ANN thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=240779.0

Dave is the only person I've seen who actually recovers other people's coins and has testimonials to that effect (that are not bought). But obviously the amount of time it will take to find your password/seed phrase/whatever will vary wildly depending on how you lost it, and in some cases may not even be recoverable at all.

No need to use any of those scam crypto "recovery" sites.

[Rruchi man]

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), Belgium’s financial regulatory agency, has published its mid-2024 report, highlighting a significant increase in fraudulent activities, particularly involving trading platforms and  cryptocurrency scams...

I am not surprised if there is a report that claims that there is an increase in fraudulent activities because the economy is getting hard, people have been laid off work, more people are looking for any means to make money, and because cryptocurrency is one of the newest innovations in the market, scammers will always try to take advantage of it. As the popularity of cryptocurrency is on the rise, it is normal to also have an equivalent rise in crimes related to it.

[yhiaali3]

I am not surprised if there is a report that claims that there is an increase in fraudulent activities because the economy is getting hard, people have been laid off work, more people are looking for any means to make money, and because cryptocurrency is one of the newest innovations in the market, scammers will always try to take advantage of it. As the popularity of cryptocurrency is on the rise, it is normal to also have an equivalent rise in crimes related to it.

Personally, I do not think that the increase in fraudulent activities has much to do with the difficult economic situation and the increase in unemployment, but yes, it has to do with the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies and the desire to get rich quickly, which in my opinion is the primary reason for attracting fraud victims. Most of these victims are eager to get rich quickly, so they fall easy prey to fraud.

Another factor is the ease of creating and promoting fraudulent cryptocurrencies for a few hundred dollars, as there are no regulatory laws or strict regulations for creating such fraudulent currencies.