Brits lose £27 million to Crypto and Forex scams last year
The FCA has issued a warning and a reminder of just how extensive the problem with scammer brokers is. Consider last fiscal year (2018/2019) £27 million damage caused by Forex and Crypto related frauds, and one can easily take in account the just of it. Even more so is the fact that this tremendous amount of, essentially, stolen money originates from UK citizen accounts only. Impressive must be the European or, better yet, global loss per fiscal year.
As one of the most notorious global regulators, the FCA has deducted that an average of £14,600 was the price users paid when giving into these fraudulent brokers. Furthermore, authorities claims that more than 1800 Brits have been victimized, which is an astonishing increase from 2017/2018’s 550 count.
This near 340% increase is said to be caused by the recent boom in cryptocurrency trading, mainly Bitcoin. At its peak on the 17th December 2017 the digital currency reached the record price of $19 000 which instigated a chain reaction of avid traders looking for lucrative opportunities and scammers feeding off their enthusiasm. Since then it’s price has been on a downward spiral, yet the interest has only faded significantly.
Swindlers conceive their scam mostly through popular social media sites. From there they redirect consumers to a well-designed and professional looking affiliate site or directly to the so-called broker, where the gullible are promptly contacted by con men posing as expert traders or personal mangers whose only goal is to convince you to deposit. Usually the promise of a huge profit wins over the majority of unsuspecting traders. Other times it’s the sweet-tongued agents’ ability to impress and influence is what gets the rest.
In order to avoid an increase in next year’s numbers, the FCA is preoccupied with launching an awareness campaign called SmartScam. This initiative’s main drive is to separate the fake and crooked investor site from the licensed ones by encouraging users to inform themselves prior to making an investment.
